How do I put up a bell tent in the pouring rain at a festival?

[victoriasmith]

Oh help having a crisis of confidence, we are going to the Galtres festival tomorrow and the weather forecast is now for serious rain all day. Any thoughts on how best to get the bell tent up in rubbish weather, apart from quickly? We have a seperate groundsheet so surely it will just get soaked while I try and get the canvas up?

Wrap the ground sheet up in something waterproof while you do the outer bit?

Im going camping as well tomorrow, the latest forcast says it will rain until about 2pm. To be honest I dont want to attempt putting it up till it stops.

What time will you be going, think you cant get in before 3pm - forecast is rain till mid afternoon...you might just miss it. Looks great fun, we are going for the weekend too!

Hi again Victoriasmith :)

Maybe take a bin bag or something that you can put your groundsheet in after you've done the main tent bit....

Been watching weather website like a hawk today in hope it changes for us all! Metcheck.com is saying dry all day and. Metoffice says heavy rain all day so who knows eh?!

Still excited desipte the wet outlook!

Hello all, the only problem with putting the groundsheet in last is that the canvas will have to rest on the wet ground first making the inside wet and then once the pole is up its very taught and i think i would then struggle to lift it to get the groundsheet under it.

Oh LittlePushka thats a better forecast than I've seen, great news, think we are planning on going up and hoping its better weather than promised, if we can get the tent up then we'll camp tonight but if that then we might leave it till tomorrow morning, we ony live in leeds so its not too far to go. Our DS is only 5 months old so I'll be doing the bell tent on my own and would really rather not put it up in a thunder storm. Main concern though is that if we leave it till saturday morning we wont find a a pitch site big enough for our 5m bell!

Hi again MrsMc82, yes I have been doing the same on the internet, when I get a forecast I don't like I go on another site for one that's better! Fingers crossed we might just miss the downpour, but on the news this morning there was just a great big rainy patch over York.

Hi victoriasmith and littlepushka,

How did you get on this weekend?

Was pretty blooming muddy wasn't it??

Still had an amazing time and ds was pretty good, considering his first camping trip he slept in the baby back pack while dh and I enjoyed the charletons and the levellers - no idea how he could sleep thru the music but it was great that we coiuld enjoy it!

DS also loved the angel gardens bit and the bed time stories by the fire and the wee folk music sessions...... Think we'll try go again next year!

Hi glad you got on better than we did, had an awful time. Our DS is only 5 months so not really old enough to enjoy the angel garden stuff although it was amazing, we still had a look round. For us the mud was just too much and the problems with the car and the car parks as well. We gave up and came home early in the end. DS did do really well on the friday night though which was encouraging for future trips

Aw that's such a shame, so sorry you had an awful time, heard quite a few people went early as sat was pretty hard going wasn't it?, and fri was too. We were lucky to get there after queue had gone down and that we found a wee patch in the fist family field to pitch the tent but we did end up ditching the car and getting the tent up as it got stuck, also had to get pulled out this am (the ds found tractor pulling daddy's car THE most exciting thing ever!!). If we'd have had to park in main car park i'd have given up and gone home before even atempting to get the tent up :o

Glad your ds was good on the fri night - where you going to go next with him? More festivals or a more civilised camping experience ;) ?

we are meant to be going camping at thistledown in the cotswolds in two weeks but have noticed that our lovely new tent actually has a tear in the stitching at the point of the tent, just waiting to hear back from the company to see what they can do.

Well i am just back after 8 nights under canvas. The festival was the most hideous mudfest I have ever experienced and we would have bailed out earlier had we been able to leave the filed! But mud aside, the festival itself was great - angel gardens were great and we loved the wee folk too.

I agree that it was really hard going all Friday and Sat but on sat night the wind got up, the rain stopped and on sunday we were able to walk reasonably well in the tracks of the tractor. Sunday was therefore the best day for us. Cars leaving the family field fine by then but I think the main car park had some serous trouble. The boys loved it, really had a ball haring about in their hi viz beanie hats!!.

Camping on a normal campsite after that though was like a five star hotel!!! Can really recommend Castlerigg Hall, Keswick, Lake District - really superb facilities and loads to do for kids around and about.

Sun was our best day too - mud was more bearable and got to see more bandsa and spend more time in the angel gardens DS loved wee folk too :) - though think DS's best day was monday when Daddy's car had to get pulled out by a tractor and being a 19mo boy he LOVES tractors!!! Were were in family field too, just in the first bit and we wouldn't have gotten stuck unless some fool had walked in front of dh's car on the way out the gate and had to stop right in the muddy bit!!!

Think shall go again next year! :)

Definitely going next year too! If you buy tickets now apparantly you save loads. If you get them with your credit card then you will be guaranteed a refund if the event is cancelled. We were in the little family field too - did you have a red (volvo?) car., just on other side of the hedge from the portaloos? (We were at the top of that little field with two little boys who youd swear were twins,..they had luminous hats and stripey tractor waterproofs....oh and of course there was me looking VERY glamorous (not!) It was a lovely little family field - everyone was so nice and it was very civilised.

I am not clever enough to post a link but I am told the website started selling tickets on 1st September. I think we will aim to get there well before 3pm next year. When we got there in the traffic jam at about 3.15pm lots of folk were already set up and must have been there much sooner. great idea I think!

Hiya :)

no we've got a silver octavia, were right at the far end of th first family field. Where the gate was...... We managed to miss the traffic jam by arriving at abut 6pm but then we ended up getting set up at dusk which DH hates doing.....

I'm def going to book some tickets soon, DH wants to wait till a line up is announced but I don't care who's playing it'll still be a fab weekend and even better if the weather would be dry!!! :o

I agree totally! - I dont care who is on - it was just great fun for me and the boys!! I reacll a very sweet dark haired boy in a blue splash suit with a matching blue baloon around that area - was that you? Well I hope you get some cheap tickets for next year - we are going to go really early next year to avoid the 3pm chaos!

Hiya!
Just booked tickets for next year!!! £43 each for weekend at the mo - bargain!!! Haven't told DH yet haha!
Just seen you're reply LittlePushka! You were v observant but that wasn't DS either - we were near a couple of small 1 and 2 man tents and a massive white transit van that was parked under the big tree in the corner..... Oh and DS woke everyone around us up with his musical teddy at ten to 6 on sat morning - that was mortifying!!!
VictoriaSmith - have u got your bell tent clean yet?