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

[Eeepsh]

Allow them to open the fucking tent in the living room to. "See what it's like"

It's a fucking tent and regardless of how many times you watch the fucking video, Part A might fold into Part B eventually but it certainly wont then fit in the fucking bag. Believe me.

Any other helpful (ha) tips for Festival Virgins?!!

Please, pretty please

When I picked my dd and friend up it was 31 degrees. Windows and air con all the way home lol.

Oh and most tents do not come back. I always thought this is terribly wasteful, but it is quite normal.

But putting it up first at home means they'll know how to do it when they get there, and not trying to figure out part a and part b etc in the dark/rain/hill/drunk....

Their tent came back, told them not to try and get it back in the bag lol.

Take the least amount of “stuff” possible, you won’t use any of it and you’ll just be worried someone is going to nick it while you’re away from your tent or out of your bag.

The great thing about being a grown up is you can afford to pay for a pre-pitched tent and someone else to blow up the airbeds! I’m currently trying to pack for a festival for me, DH and two preschoolers, I’ve got it down to one clean t-shirt and knickers each per day, one can of deodorant and toothbrushes, everything else can be reworn and warm jumpers because it gets cold at night and we’ll buy anything else we need there rather than drag it from the car and then have to pack it up again.

If you lend them your car "cos its bigger", tell them not to open the windows before accelerating too hard whilst stuck in mud..

Always send a black plastic sack to put the filthy stuff in, pack 2 plastic bags to put inside each shoe, send a water proof jacket whatever they think. Oh and a hat.

I've been to loads and dd has been to them on her own too, it's fine, though she is sensible and goes with good friends

Put charged up power banks, torches and spare glasses (if they wear them) in a lunch box. Keeps them dry and stops them getting broken if trodden on.

Tell your DC that it’s really not a good idea to drink booze all day in the sunshine, no water, very little food and end up in the first aid tent.
Tit 🤦‍♀️

Make sure they have enough money to go in their festival wrist band, as everything costs a fortune.

😂😂 <- this thread.

I hate camping of any kind and particularly any festivals.

Oh and DD’s friend seemed surprised when I mentioned she would need to stop drinking early on Sunday as they planned to drive home in the early hours of Monday 🤷🏼‍♀️

I wouldn't let a child go to a festival alone if they can't pack their tent back in it's bag. Disgusting the amount of waste left at festivals these days. Just lazy gen z'ers who are too selfish and inconsiderate to take their shit home with them and reuse it. Instead they treat everything as disposable. And these youngsters are supposed to be the environmentally enlightened, climate considerate ones. Planet is fucked.

Oh she lost her phone and purse on the first night …. found them under the tent when they packing up to leave 🤣

Practice dismantling the tent and sleeping bags, and getting them back into their bags. Same applies if you have a pop-up travel cot (took 3 adults and a Youtube video to get it back in its bag).

One I've passed onto all my nieces and nephews. Never under any circumstances accept anything from a Druid, if they pass you what they say is a joint!
Back in the 90s, my friend stupidly while drunk, accepted a toke of what he was told was weed in a joint, from the druids in the tent next to his. It was weed with crack in it and they thought it was hilarious. He was ill for the whole of the next day and spent it in his tent!

Do your own research on different areas of the campsite. Boardmasters, for example has an ongoing rival between two areas. If they don’t want to find half the campsite playing supermarket sweep or camping chair cricket or rugby at 5 in the morning using their tent as stumps or an obstacle course, suggest they camp as far away from these areas as possible. DS said it was like going to a different festival when they camped in the “adult area” this year.

Make sure you have the phone numbers of all their friends so if the signal is poor you may have a slim chance of getting hold of one of them.

Don't go racing to the rescue at 3 in the morning, inevitably they will have gone back to sleep by the time you get there and are no longer interested in going home.

If they need ID try and avoid taking a passport, if it’s lost or ends up muddy and worse for wear that trip abroad the following week is just not happening.

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.

Is anyone else thinking of Victoria Wood?

Take tube A and apply to bracket B 😂😂😂

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).