Do you smuggle drinks in?

[VimtoPassion]

I'm not a risk taker and I haven't had many adventures.

I went to a couple of festivals in the 90s and am about to go to my 3rd!

The friends I'm going with are seasoned pros and see smuggling their vodka in as all part of the fun. It's not really about the money for them, but the creativity, challenge and "winning" against the people who charge such rip off prices at these events.

I can see their POV, but equally would be mortified to get caught. I also can manage perfectly well on a couple of expensive beers without necking illicit vodka. What happens if they/we get caught? Is there a possibility that they'll be denied entry and I'll end up there on my own?!

The friends are people who have been really good to me since a series of tragic events. I'm grateful for their friendship and support but sometimes we are very different. This is never a problem though, they know that and accept it. They'd have no issue if I decide not to "play".

So, would you and if so what are your best creative ideas?

They have lots of props on Amazon, an umberella which will hold drink and bags with hidden compartments, for example, but surely the organisers are wise to those?

At a camping festival recently we were wrapping premix cans in the picnic blankets and stashing them under the buggy. Under the raincover too. They searched the top layer of nappy bag but didn’t find the ones in the bottom of it and never searched under the buggy!!

Wine bags in long wellies.

Yes I had vodka in my bra last weekend. It's £8 a can of beer at festivals!

It’s pure greed. It’s not because alcohol is banned at the event. It’s because they want to rinse you for cash and make you buy theirs at an inflated price. Thankfully the family festival I’m going to this summer permits you to take food. I have an autistic child who will only eat certain familiar foods and food allergies too so we can’t buy unlabelled food from vans. I would like to have a drink after he’s gone to bed though, so I’ll be reusing my old breast milk bags and filling them with spirits then stuffing them in my bra!

I’m loving these ideas, wish I’d read this before the weekend.

I went to a live outdoor concert, luckily my friend managed to smuggle a bottle of wine inside her trousers. If it was a “dry” event, I wouldn’t try and break the rules, but it is purely about them rinsing you for your money as said above. £20 for four soft drinks, £29 for a bottle of wine and £9 for a coffee … I don’t know how they can justify that.

@VimtoPassion are you going to the Ibiza one at Windsor?

I've not been to the Windsor one but I've been to others ran by the same company. If so, they don't pat you down and you can easily hide stuff on your person. They only check bags. They had a really cute drugs dog that was a Lab that looked about 10 months old. S/he wasn't very good as o could smell people smoking weed all over the place.

Toilets were hideous. Make sure you take tissues and hand sanitiser. Don't expect sinks in the porta loos, and if there is a sink don't use the soap (if there is any) until you've checked water comes out the tap, otherwise you'll just have soapy hands! 🤣

Oh and the free water refill was not a refill at all. They just handed out warm bottles of water!

Food and drink retailers at events pay excessive amounts for their pitches (In the region of thousands of pounds when a traders pitch is hundreds of points - and even higher for major festivals)
This means that they have high overheads to recoup via their prices

Events are often funded up front by trade pitches, then the customers pay for entry tickets and the food & drink etc

Food and drink sellers have an almost captive audience, but people will bring their own at least for the campsite. The rules on not bringing your own into the festival/event itself means that the food & drink sellers can make their pitch fee back …… plus staff wages etc

………

But back into smuggling - the easiest method I find is to just buy a trading pitch and drive in with your food & drink. None of that walking a mile back & forth to campsites & parking loaded up with your gear

Haven't read all the responses but your post made me laugh and I feel a bit bad.
So when my daughter was 5 months old me and my husband had given up hope of anyone offering us some child care. So we booked a 3 day festival. It was brilliant. Not Glasto but similar. We cut costs by smuggling wine in under our daughter! We took the bag of wine out of the box and put it under her pram.
It was fab because we made loads of friends by dishing out wine while bands were playing and when it ran out , all these sweet people then bought us drinks at the lovely wine bar set up for old people! 5 month old tucked up with ear defenders on.
I will also add we spent a fortune at this festival and I don't feel bad at all about smuggling anything in- all part of the fun.

We just went to one recently and took it in. They weren't searching anyone's bags the first day, then the second day I just put it all in my coat pockets and zipped in the camping chair. They know people do it, some of them don't seem to bother - even when we did get bags check3d they barely looked and easily could have been hidden in a jumper in my rucksack! We spent loads on tickets, food, workshops, stuff for kids, so definitely don't feel bad about taking in some booze! Between the prices and the queues I'd rather take the risk!

@ComtesseDeSpair

I so wish we could be friends - your life and your attitude sound so similar to my own.
And we could form a childish drinking club - you could be president & I’ll be recording secretary. It’ll be your job to think up childish drinking games & it’ll be my job to keep score (& als. o to have a poorly kept record in case we forgeamt)
It’s a shame I liSve

@DreamTheMoors genuine question for members of the “Childish Drinking Club” - doesn’t all this smuggled booze just taste really really gross having been transported in bras, wellies, down trouser legs etc?
Seriously - this is what I just don’t “get” ? The drinks must be all warm and horrible. I don’t understand the appeal because (as I said upthread) I don’t really understand what magical things alcohol does. It just makes me feel weird and crap.
Maybe saying it was childish was a bit unfair but I really just don’t get it !

Bring on the smuggle! Every festival overcharges whether you smuggle drink in or not. Last two I've been to this year alone, £10 for a single gin and lemonade..not even named gin!
There is also a competition between our friends group on the most inventive - bottled water in packs of 6, all emptied and refilled with gin/vodka and resealed. And if you can take food in, surprising what you can hide in a baguette 🤣

The only "festival" I go to is our local beer & .cider festival. Security is pretty tight and they even sniffed my water to ensure it wasn't alcohol, there's enough being sold on site though, decent prices too.

The festivals I’ve been to recently have been ridiculously strict with scanners sniffer dogs and bag searches so it’s not been worth risk.

We did a weekender earlier this year and mostly drank in our room but friends who drink vodka had little pouches they filled and put in their bra. And we’re all in our 50’s 🤣

Water & booze behave differently when shaken (something to do with bubbles?). If security shake your refilled bottle theyll know it's not got water in it ☹

Would always smuggle in alcohol if drinking, especially to places who won’t let you bring in unopened water or a few snacks (over the top money making).

Most that will happen is your friends will have their alcohol taken off them, they won’t be refused entry. My friend with very large boobs usually just pops several hip flasks in her bra 😂

So is no one going to answer my question that surely alcohol drunk from a pouch in a bra must taste really really gross?
Why? Why do you all want to drink warmed up drinks? They must taste disgusting?
I am not completely teetotal. I might drink a cider once in a while. But it only tastes nice when it’s ice cold. When it’s warm it tastes horrible - like flat, gone off apple Tango.

I used to buy gel spray bottles - the pump ones where the containers weren't see through. Cut off the tube inside, give it a good wash and use that for alcohol. If searched, it's not obvious.

@Needmorelego

Seeimg as how I live an entire ocean and a continent away, and seeing as how I’ve never been to one of these festivals, I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants.
But reading about all the fun & childish games afoot it sounds like so much fun!
Dont these festivals know how to make ice? Surely they’d sell it by the cup there - at least you’d expect them to.
Lukewarm drinks don’t sound all that inviting but if that’s all there is, I’m prepared to rough it - I’ll take one for the Childish Club.

@Needmorelego are you ND? Because I am autistic and this is how I feel about alcohol 😂 I haven't been drunk since I was a teenager trying to "fit in". I don't understand the appeal, but then I don't like not having control over myself. I just don't understand the appeal. I will also occasionally have the odd glass of sweet wine or strawberry cider but more often than not I get halfway down the glass and I'm like meh.
I don't have an issue with other people drinking, unless they drink to the point that they become obnoxious.

@Neurodiverseuniverse my daughter is autistic and now (as an adult) and learning more about autism I think maybe I am autistic too.
I have never understood the appeal of alcohol - and the appeal of warm, flat alcohol even less.
Oh well…if others want to smuggle in booze down their pants - go for it. Maybe it’s not childish…..but to me it’s just a really really weird thing to even think about 😂

@Needmorelego I think I'd be more likely to smuggle in coke or water. I refuse to pay £4 for one can lol!
But then I've never been to a festival and likely won't ever go because that many people so close together is like hell to me 🙈
I've been to gigs though but the prices in venues tend to be within the normal levels of "this is high but not ridiculous high"

The festival I go to every year is very strict, you can't take anything in. I don't drink but have some pouches that my DP filled with vodka and we carried them in under our hats!

At a Beyoncé concert, I saw a lady pull a full bottle of rum from underneath her electric wheelchair and start mixing drinks.

Magnificent.

Worst happens, they take it off you, you don't get chucked out. I put a half bottle of vodka in my bag and got into a festival with it because of they don't have time to actually look properly, they just have quick peek at the top contents and let you through