So I did it - I went to a festival, with the kids, and survived. It was fun in parts (a curate’s egg of a concert) and I’ve compiled a list of festival (and camping) essentials, for the uninitiated. Things to bring to keep you clean, sane and healthy.
- A torch
So you can find your way back to your tent in the dark. Also, so you can go to the toilet safely (and see the disturbing evidence of other people’s lack of torch). Men - if there are no lights in the toilets and you haven’t a torch, could you not at least just sit down to pee?!).
As a bonus, the kids can entertain themselves with an impromptu lightshow and blind everyone else in the process.
As a bonus, the kids can entertain themselves with an impromptu lightshow and blind everyone else in the process.
- Baby wipes
I heard a rumour once; perhaps it is just one of those things that has entered folklore, so wild and fanciful is the idea, that some festivals have showers. Granted, my experience of such things is limited but I have never come across such things, hence the need for the wipes. Akin giving yourself a bed bath…
3) Dry shampoo
You can get little, mini ‘holiday sized’ cans now! Please see above, with regards to lack of shower facilities.
4) Wellies
An absolute must. Then you don’t have to worry about ruining your trainers. I alternated between wellies and sandals at my most recent festival (such is the nature of British weather).
5) Anti-bacterial wipes and hand gel.
Self-explanatory really...
6) A water carrier.
Fill it up at a tap then you don’t have to rely on your essential and rapidly dwindling, bottled water supplies.
7) Brioche buns.
As our friends said - these things would survive a nuclear holocaust, or at least being bashed around in your bag and baked in the sun. They last for ages and make a decent breakfast food. Not the healthiest but then - you is at a festival!
8) A pocket mirror
To make fire
Nah, just kidding, to check for dirt smudges, sunburn etc. Or you could just go totally don’t-give-a-toss and not look at yourself for a whole weekend. It’s liberating (I’m told).
9) A rain poncho
Look, I’m going to level with you here - you are not going to look stylish. You can’t even wash your hair so just go with the flow (man), put on a circlet of flowers and just don that poncho if it rains. The poncho is light and goes over your clothes. It will keep you semi-dry and that’s all that matters. In your sleep deprived, dehydrated and slightly inebriated state, you will think that you look like something from Woodstock ‘69. (Just don’t look at the pictures ‘til you get home, OK, just focus on that image in your head).
10) A good book
If you need to escape to a quiet corner (as I did, when my 3 year old daughter wanted to go back to the tent for a nap) the book is your friend. (Although this puts me, rather disturbingly, in mind of The League of Gentlemen - Pauline’s pens, pens are friends...) When you are away from home a good book can be your solace and your escape. I’ve read of travellers who take their well worn favourite books away with them, to turn to in times of homesickness and that sense of spaciness and alienation that sometimes attacks the most seasoned of travellers. I’m not suggesting that you would get homesick at a festival, just that, it’s really handy to have some portable, peaceful entertainment with you; when the noise and the drinking all gets a bit too much.
11) Earplugs
There will always be a group of wankers staying up far later than you, playing loud music and talking and laughing long into the night and early hours of the morning. Ideally, you should try and be one of those wankers, yourself and then it won’t bother you. However, this isn’t really an option when you have kids, so draw straws (if there are two of you) on who gets to wear the earplugs*
* Sadly, I wore them at the weekend and they didn’t really work, but they might work for you!
12) A bonus one
A guide to the nearest hotels/B&Bs - for if it all gets too much or you are planning for the next year.
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