To say if your child is going to a Festival for the first time, do not, under any circumstances

I am confused as to why anyone would go to something like this. We have schools, where any adult must be badged up and accompanied to enter. And then we let teens go to shit fests like this where tents are set on fire, stuff is stolen, drugs are taken - it’s dirty and so incredibly unpleasant. Why do they go? I have a 16yo and 18yo who don’t understand either!

Why on earth would the be mocked for a wheelie case... they are standard.

They do get stuck in mud or on stones but you won't be mocked. I have used them for 2/3rds of the 20 years I have been going to festivals.

It's far better than being exhausted and in pain after after carrying everything, I STILL have shoulder damage from my teens before getting the wheelie ones.

I would also put some condoms in their bag, without making a song and dance about it. Better safe than sorry.

My DS loves festivals and likes to be comfortable. He's got a battery pack and camping chair. He usually stays in the family or campervan areas where it's quieter and apparently the facilities are cleaner.

He's never knowingly missed a meal so he always eats well but food and drink is expensive. And he's filthy coming back.

I dropped him off to his first festival and I was surprised how easy it was.

I'm sure she'll have a fabulous time!

Battery packs
Bin bags
Immodium (dodgy tummy at a festival is the worst!)
Wet wipes
Bottled water
Paracetamol
Torch
Sturdy trainers/wellies/walking boots if rain is forecast

If you're picking them up from the station put bin bags down on the seats/floor beforehand so your car doesn't get covered in mud.

i believe they distribute the tents to the homeless or at least recycle them someway

My DD has just returned from a festival. I made sure she could put up the tent and take it down before she went through forced garden tent practice. I think it is horrendous the way some kids just walking away and leaving their camping stuff behind. Such a waste and such a terrible attitude towards our planet.

@AIstolemylunch Deffo tracksuit bottoms for sleeping in. The sleeping bag may not be warm enough. Chargeable mobile phone charger thingy.

Thanks for your reply. I did not say it was great behaviour but quite normal yes. I have expressed concerns where my DC have done this but lazy and ashamed is far too strong. Perhaps you need to get out a little but more and take some calming exercise?

great tips here - ds off to Reading tommorow and is a complete novice.

What clothes should he take? change of pants? will it literally all go missing from his tent if he's not wearing it?

My youngest son is a seasoned festival goer now but how he laughed when 10 years ago I suggested he take a fold-up camping chair to Reading. Fast forward to the day he arrived home and told me how they all had to take turns in the one chair between them that someone else more savvy had taken x

Hang all clothes outside for a couple of days before washing them. Or bin them.

Do not under any circumstances pitch the tent at the bottom of a hill if there is any chance of rain.

I'm a "senior" festival goer so not young and quite so carefree, but some of this might be relevant...
Decent power bank to charge phone over the whole weekend. First aid kit - blister plasters, paracetamol, Imodium, rehydration sachets. Refillable water bottle, sun screen. Hand sanitizer. Spare toilet roll. Black bin bag for wet/dusty/smelly stuff.
It's ALWAYS freezing in a tent in the middle of the night, no matter what the daytime temperature is. I also take a sleep mask as a full face of sun at 5am isn't great after 3 hours of sleep.
Solar lights or flag pole to find the tent.
Waterproofs - if you take them you won't need them, but It's pretty miserable getting soaked and not being able to dry anything if it does rain.
Don't take anything you don't want to lose - to be fair, theft seems pretty unusual at festivals but a small ruck sack/bum bag with phone and bank card kept with you at all times. (most if not all festivals are cashless now - and expensive £7 a pint and £10 - £15 per "meal")
The point someone made about watching the alcohol consumption the night before driving home is a VERY good one. We have seen the police stopping drivers at 9am on a Monday morning outside the festival gates before now.
Really unusual to see any trouble at a festival though.
They won't melt if they don't have a shower for a few days.
Look out for each other and have the best time ever ! You can sleep/wash when you get home.

Normal to who? I guess the lazy don't give a shit about the planet festival goers?

It's absolutely disgusting the mess left behind at festivals. To just leave your tent where it is along with sleeping bags, chairs, tables and all sorts of other crap is awful and I would be ashamed if my son or daughter did this.

Please don't let them be one of the lazy wank stains who leave their tent and rubbish at the site.

I wouldn't recommend putting the tent up in the living room, but it is very sensible to practice setting it up and packing down again somewhere OP. Not least because I have had faulty brand new tents in the past, but older lent tents can also be missing parts/damaged. Then there is the hell of figuring out a new tent for the first time in the pissing rain. A friend had a new tent that was damaged (it was clearly a faulty return that had been resold as new on closer inspection), but hadn't had a practice run and only found out at the campsite, many miles from home with 2 small DCs in tow...

Do.expect them to come back reeking of bonfire and not be able yo get rid of the smell for a good few weeks.

Oh god this. My son was really unwell after his first (and only) trip to a festival. He says the last couple of days there were the worst of his life as he felt so ill, stuck in a tent in a field and sharing revolting toilet facilities (I think he might have had covid).

our tents have always come home?

do not camp near a pathway and (in the case of Reading) do not camp near the music - the further away you are the less chance of your tent getting vandalised in the last night chaos.

battery packs for phone are key.

a chair is handy if you can bear to carry it.

don't take too much stuff. the walks (from station to bus and bus to campsite) can be very long. a few bits of long life food (bagels? tuna? biscuits?) and as few clothes as possible (clean t shirt and underwear for each day but really just one pair trousers, one pair shorts and a hoody. wet wipes and deodorant.

Check student railcars are in date/accessible. My daughter's been done twiceonce for not being able to find the railcard in her bag (when they were paper, not on an app) and once for not having noticed that the railcard had actually expired a week earlierafter she'd booked the tickets but before she actually travelled home from the festival.

Otherwise you will have the joy of collecting them from random stations which were the only ones they could get to because the last fast train left without them.

Surely when you go to a festival you have to assume that you’ll be leaving the tent unattended at some point to, I don’t know, see a band or something?
Probably cheaper to put the tent up in your garden and sit in it for the weekend.

Download the map of the area to your phone's memory while you're at home. Makes navigating much easier in a place with overstretched 4G.

Don't, whatever you do, look at anything on social media or the news about the festival. You just don't want to know what they get up to there.

Is anyone else thinking of Victoria Wood?

Take tube A and apply to bracket B 😂😂😂

Take toilet paper or tissues of your own, the toilets will definitely run out. Ditto hand sanitizer, but as teens they won't care!

Don't think you're being clever by using a padlock to lock your tent - it just means any thieves will assume you have stuff worth nicking and your tent will get slashed.

Leave valuables at home, anything essential, keep on you at all times.

Make sure you have lots of bottled water - good for hangovers, washing, teeth cleaning and post-excess generally.

Take an entire roll of bin bags, they're surprisingly useful.
Ditto several packs of wet wipes.

Having a "festival belt" that you can hang stuff off and clip onto it with a carabiner is very useful for not losing things from absent mindedness or when inebriated.