Festival camping equipment sans kids?!

[revellish]

My husband and I are going to Latitude next weekend and leaving our DCs with my parents (woo hoo)!

However this is the first time that we have been camping together (and first time at a festival too!) and have no equipment whatsoever. We have bought a tent and a double sleeping bag (!) but need to think about how and what we're going to eat. What to cook on? Kettle kettle or stove or? Any recommendations for easy, novice friendly festival cooking?

Thank you thank you!

(P.S. We would love to include DCs next time we go camping when they will be 18 months and 3.5 years... so it would be great if whatever equipment we bought could be used for family camping too.)

we have got a really tiny gas burner and we use it for noodles and packets of uncle beans rice - normally microwavable but you can boil ti too.

tbh at festivals we just bite the bullet and eat our as it is a lot easier than lugging all the stuff there.

What sleeping mats have you got? you will also need earplugs in case the campsite is noisy and a torch.

Practise putting the tent up in the garden first so you know what you are doing.

Don't take too much stuff - the walk from the car is always longer than you think and doubly so when you've got lots of stuff to carry. If you think you'll be out all day watching the bands, and not going back to your tent, then you don't need lots of food - just snacks and breakfast things.

We just have a simple one-ring gas stove which is fine for making tea. We've been to a lot of festivals and downsize every single year so that now we just buy our food there and it's so much easier.

If you do want to eat, we used to make a chilli before we went and freeze it so it defrosted in time, which we'd cook on the first night with some boil in the bag rice. Otherwise noodles and pasta are quite good.

Baby wipes, bin bags, ear plugs, eye masks, hand sanitiser, loo roll, lots of spare socks, change of clothes in car in case it pisses it down.

Thanks for the suggestions... youbroke, we don't have any sleeping mats yet... could you recommend any in particular? Is it worth trying to take a blow-up mattress thing?

Oh and is a Kelly Kettle a good idea then if its just tea and stuff that you might want to warm up or is that too complicated/expensive for a festival?

I'm off to Latitude too but with child! We have a 3 man tent, SIMs, sleeping bags, gas cooker and trangia style cooker so we can cook breakfast and one other meal each day, a folding wash basin or trug for washing/washing up and a water carrier, hand sanitiser, pocket tissues, ear defenders for DC, fleece blanket and groundsheet.

Will cook boil in the bag dahl served with chapatis, instant mushroom risotto, instant vege sausages and will make some coffee in travel cafetiere and maybe some instant porridge for DC.

I personally don't like the blowup mattresses and use flat ones instead but I know most people like them.

If everyone promises not to shun me with disgust I will say we also take an emergency plastic bag with a pampers bed protector in and if I am completely caught short then I will have a wee in it in the middle of the night and then throw it away. Am embarrassed to admit that but the long muddy cold 3am walk is very appealing, plus not being able to see in a festival toilet is a nightmare.

Youbroke what about a SheWee? (SO planning on getting one of those but your idea sounds brilliant in fact!)

(I have myself 'tried out' a few of DCs nappies once when I couldn't get out of bed... so you are not alone!!)

I have a shewee and have used it occasionally but I have a strong stomach and don't mind most festive toilets during the day. But at night it's the walk to the loos though a massively congested campsite that's the deal breaker.

Hmm, good point. Think I'm going to steal your pee-bag idea. Sounds ideal! :)