Yoohoo! All you festival camping types!

[LollipopViolet]

I'm a newbie to both festivals and camping and I'm going to Sonisphere at the end of next month. Would really appreciate your tips for having a good time. Also any tips about the whole camping thing, hygiene, food (I've got a little BBQ to take but we need ideas of what to cook on it) and any other advice, like how to survive in a crowd (rock/metal festival with Iron Maiden, Alice cooper and Rammstein). Another question I have is, there's me and 3 mates going, plus another 2 guys meeting us there, how do we find each other? Also how to find each other anyway, and where to buy a strap for my glasses so I don' lose them!

Actually, just tell me EVERYTHING I could possibly need, and everything besides!

Take babywipes for washing. Impulse type body spray for disguising the lack of showering. Hand gel for after you've beeen to the loo. Take some loo paper, they will run out.

Not really sure what you could cook on a BBQ as anything like sausages you won't be able to keep them in a fridge.

I guess if you all have mobile phones then you can ring each other up to meet. Make sure you have a meeting place once you're in the festival so if anyone gets seperated you know where to head to.

Sports shops like Intersport sell glasses' straps.

Haven't been to Sonisphere but TBH I'd forget about cooking food - as Stripey says, you won't be able to keep anything cold and there are bound to be loads of food vans and stalls where you can eat. When you're wandering around the festival you really won't want to be bothered with going all the way back to the tent to cook. Just take some biscuits, maybe some fruit and things, snacks that won't go off and that you can carry around with you if you get peckish.

I would take a bit of shampoo with you as if there are standpipes you can sometimes do a quick wash under them - at least that's what I've done in the past, admittedly when it's been really hot! But would second the baby wipes, they are a life saver.

Also make sure you have the basic camping essentials - torch (very important), lots of plastic bags for keeping everything dry, wellies, waterproof coat, hat, and one of those wind-up phone chargers is always handy - good in case you run out of cash too as there are always people willing to pay a couple of quid to use it! Make sure you take warm clothes as you'll be surprised how cold it can get at night.

Erm... can't think of anything else off the top of my head but do ask if you have any more questions!

It's a good idea to have some sort of flag to attach to your tent so you can find it easily.

A washing up bowl is a useful thing to take for carrying water and washing up.

Head torch is also a good idea.

Buy a cool box for your sausages. I have a Coleman one and it keeps things cool for a couple of days.

Agree re. the stalls though - you're more likely to use those than cook for yourself.

Well, we go shopping daily at a local supermarket, buy a couple of frozen things (cheap bag of ice if you don't want frozen burgers or whatever) and stick in a cool bag with anything fresh. Keeps fine for a few hours until you're ready to bbq. Otherwise, snacks, biscuits, dried fruit etc for snacking. Food there is EXPENSIVE. Toilet rolls and babywipes a must. It gets cold in the middle of the night even when v hot ime so take trackie bottoms and a hoodie for sleeping in, not pyjamas.

I go to hippy festivals though. Cambridge folk fest this year. Lots of warm showers and clean, flushing toilets that always have loo roll and are cleaned hourly. V civilised.

Pick somewhere to meet on day one, text and voila.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone! I'm tempted to ditch the BBQ, unless my mates want me to bring it for whatever reason. Apparently, the organisers are connecting all the loos together so that they can't be overturned! .

Anyone got any places they can recommend for flags? My mate has an Iron Maiden one but since they're playing, I reckon loads of people will have them.

Not sure about the flags, but luminous guy-ropes are a good idea - they make your tent stand out and are less of a tripping hazard in the dark! Or you can tie bits of ribbon to your guy-ropes for the same reason.

They will sell flags there I'd have thought, most festivals do. Otherwise google for festival flags/festival windsocks.

wet wipes are your friend

are you able to camp near your vehicle? if not, take a fold up wheelbarrow (Argos used to do one) or a fold up trolley, as it is knackering lugging ytents/beer etc for miles....

work out a capsule wardrobe of layers and get a hat which is good for shade AND warmth . Everyone wears silly hats at festivals so don't worry about looking like a numptie.

it gets really cold at night sometimes. take hat/socks to sleep in. also, my top tip is get a slvery emergency blanket (from any camping store) and oput it on floor of tent, underneath whatever you are sleeping on, it is great insulation

many big festivals have a tea-stall in each field so you are never far from breakfast and you can buy pretty much anything to eat there.

check rules on alcohol - many won't allow glass into arena so take some big plastic coke bottle if you want a drink on the festival field (as opposed to campsite)

remember to go to the loo everytime you get the chance, otherwise you will forget and need a wee right in the middle of Iron maiden and never be able to find your mates again

consider getting a shewee if you are squeamish

Ellie, the festival are seriously strict, only unopened bottles of water can go into the arena But I'm not huge on drinking anyway, so will probably just drink in the campsite! I'm seriously excited now, the only major concern at the moment is there are 4 of us travelling down together, in my mate's Mini...with 2 tents, and all our other stuff...

Might be a bit squashed!

We can't camp with the car either unfortunately, but I'm sure we'll survive! I am, as we speak, looking for a funky festival hat!

You can keep stuff cool, we go to a couple of festivals every year and manage cooked breakfasts for two days and tea with milk for three.
We freeze sausages and bacon in portions and a pint of milk, wrap them in foil and put them in a mini cool bag, this then goes into a big cool bag filled with ice packs along with any unfrozen food we take to use when we get there. You just remove what you need and put them in the outer cool bag to defrost. I promise we have never been ill from doing this.
We only bother cooking breakfast, as music tends to be on during other mealtimes so it's better to use stalls then.

Despite what they say about not allowing anything but water in the arena, you can take it in, I had a pouch of wine in my welly last year, and Dh carries cans in his hood and we are certainly not alone in this, the prices of drink inside are always a rip off even for soft drinks.

Wipes for everything, I take facial wipes, toilet wipes, deodorant wipes and dettol wipes, and mouthwash is handy too.

Don't just use the toilets that people come out of in a big queue, this seems to happen lots and often there maybe an ok loo that is not being used, also a big poncho is handy for free-weeing in a feral emergency. Another top loo tip is that when the music is on and the queues are massive, it can sometimes be quicker to walk out of the arena to the campsite loos than it is to queue.

Definately don't pitch your tent too near the loos or on the edge of a walkway.

Hope you have fun! I am getting excited now, we are doing V this year, I'm a bit nervous though as will be 22 weeks pg.

notso, I've just discovered, I'm also doing V, just the Sunday though.

I'm going with my mate H, who is a wheelchair user, but if one day goes well, we're going to look into camping and doing the full 3 days! I'll be an old hand by then (or at least will know what I'm doing!)

Another friend got day tickets, then got weekend camping ones and has given us the day ones Lovely friend.

Ooh what a great friend.
One of our gang is a wheelchair user and frequent Festival-goer and he rates V for access.

Have a good one