Glastonbury - would you take a bell tent?

[DallyG]

I was planning on buying a 4/6 man tent to take for me and my friend (she’s super tall and would ideally want to stand up inside!)

Now I’m thinking I could just take the bell tent. Not worried about carrying it in as will have a trug. But space wise? Would be be dicks to take up that much space?

Its going to be super muddy the fields around pilton are already looking dodgy and we've got a good week of rain to come.

Dd1 says posh middle class tents ie bell tents get slashed at the kind of disgusting festivals she goes to

I work there and camp in relatively naice areas but still wouldn't take my beautiful bell tent! I'll be arriving on Monday tea time but have still been told to be considerate with my tent size. Good luck and have a blast!

Cheap Aldi tent, and practice putting it up before you go, bin liners to put all the wet stuff in, upgrade your tent pegs to rock pegs.

Cheap supermarket tents are a poor investment. If there’s anything approaching normal Glastonbury weather, they will get wrecked and be unusable after a single use. A moderately priced small tent from a proper camping shop like a Coleman will serve you much better and last for years.

@thesunrising, I have three tents already, my bell tent, a 2 man vango and a 4 man Coleman but none of them big enough for two of us really. The Coleman I need to look after as DS is using it next month. I don’t really want to drop another £££ on a tent I won’t use again

Decathlon tents are ace and reasonably priced. We bought one two years ago for a festival thinking if it got wrecked it wouldnt matter, its still going strong whereas half the poles on my Outwell have snapped!

Ours is a blackout tent and that is worth its weight in gold

You can't just wash a bell tent - for a start it will fuck all the waterproofing up. We sent ours off to a sailmakers to put in their huge washing machine and re-waterproof it when it needed washing.

We did take ours to Glastonbury in 2016 (the muddiest ever ... to date) and it was fine, but we were in the pop up motel just outside the site so minimal people off their faces traipsing past/over our tent and plenty of cordoned off space. I would never take it into the main sites though.

Have a blast - it's probably going to be a tad muddy (although there should be a clear week beforehand and the met office are now predicting a dry/sunny festival as of 13 minutes ago!) but in my experience (and we were there in 2016) not even the weather can ruin Glastonbury.

We're off there again this year with 10yo DD and 8yo GodD, campervanning it this year though 😁

Depends where you want to camp re space and damage. But I would take one just because of the weight. It's a fucking long walk and you will have other stuff with you.

Your 4 man Coleman will be perfect. Take that. And deal with the eventuality of it being wrecked. IF it gets wrecked.

Glastonbury is absolutely MASSIVE and the idea of pulling my bell tent and sleepmat and stuff on a garden trailer makes me want to cry. The other consideration is that when you do in fact pack up it will be far to large to fold and pack away. If the floor is muddy..... well you’re buggered.

Even if it’s a wet Glastonbury your tent won’t get wrecked unless you are in a particularly muddy zone e.g. the bottom of pennards hill. I’ve always taken my usual tent and even after some fairly muddy years they’ve survived fine. You may just need to put it up when you get home and hose it down. That said I wouldn’t bother with the bell tent, with the campsites being such a long walk from the car parks and space being at a premium by Wednesday night you want something lightweight, smallish and easy to put up!

I echo a previous posters thoughts - the 4 man Coleman will be plenty big enough. I’ve found the secret to a successful Glastonbury is to divest yourself of as many worldly goods as possible and travel light. If you can manage to get from the car park to your pitch with all your stuff in just one trip (or with maybe just one return trip halfway through the festival to top up the booze/snacks supplies), you will save your self potentially hours of needless trudging across the site. Some people turn up with everything but the kitchen sink - the effort must be exhausting.