Musical Festival Survival Guide

Summertime is fast approaching, and with it comes the prime season for outdoor music festivals. While SXSW signaled the official start of the yearly festival circuit in March and Coachella already came and went last month, festivals like the Sasquatch! Music Festival are just around the corner. Held on Memorial Day weekend at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington, Sasquatch! is practically in our backyard and worthy of a weekend road trip.

Before you hit the road with high hopes of having some musical fun in the sun, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Preparation

To make the most out of your music festival experience, you need to prepare. Remember that Boy Scouts motto before it turned into “Don’t touch me there”? Be prepared. With careful planning, you can ensure your time at the fest is memorable for all the right reasons.

Your travel plans will ultimately decide how much you can bring with you. If you are making a road trip out of the festival you can pack your car full of supplies and goodies, but if you are flying or taking a train you are going to have to pack light. Either way, remember that once you’re at the festival you’ll only have what you bring, buy or borrow.

Camping supplies are key. A good reliable tent and sleeping bag can be the difference between waking up rested and ready in the morning and waking up wet. A portable shade tent can also give you an added layer of protection from the rain or sun and make your site more comfortable.

Packing some food and beverages for your campsite and some pre-packaged snacks to bring into the venue will save money that you can instead spend on other party favors and memorabilia. Bringing plenty of water to drink will also save you some cash, and a CamelBak or other hydration pack is a good way to have your water on the go.

A few days before you go, throw some water bottles in the freezer, then throw them in your cooler with a bag of ice as you’re hitting the road. Not only will they keep your food and bevs cold, but when they eventually melt you’ll have cold water to drink.

What clothes to bring will largely depend on where and when your festival is, but keep in mind that you want to be comfortable. Dress for the summer heat, but bring a hoodie or light jacket to stay warm for the late-night party.

Even if you plan to stay true to your hippie roots, bring a couple changes of clothes. While a good case of fudgey, dirt-covered toes is a music festival rite of passage, walking around in the same clothes for up to four days will just make you smell like sweaty, rotten ass. That brings to mind this piece of advice: Pack baby wipes. In the absence of a shower, baby wipes can go a long way in making you feel clean. And don’t forget basic toiletries like a toothbrush, toothpaste and a roll or two of toilet paper.

Getting there and setting up camp

Once you’ve gotten all your supplies prepared and the opening day of the festival has finally arrived, it’s time to make the trek there. If traveling by car, it’s best to fuel up relatively close to the venue so that you have plenty of gas in the tank. You don’t want to be the car that runs out of gas in the often miles-long lines to get in. Besides, you never know when you might want to start up the car to use the radio or the A/C, or maybe charge a phone or camera.

Most camping sites at festivals are fairly regulated as to where you can set up your camp. Staff members will generally guide you to your site, but if possible, avoid any gullies or low spots on the terrain. If it rains, you don’t want your site to be in the path of the water runoff.

The summer festival experience is only as good as you make it, and meeting and getting to know your neighbors at your campsite will add to the fun. A good way to bond with the people you’ll be passing out and partying with for the next three to four days is by offering to lend a hand when they’re setting up their tent. That simple act of kindness can pay dividends.

Mark your site and take note of what’s around your tent. Trying to find your tent, especially at night, in the middle of a tent city can be tricky. Makeshift flags with some glow sticks attached to the bottom, or a kite flown above your hooch will help when you come stumbling back at the end of the day.

While you’re there

Plan which acts you want to see before you head out from your camp and into the venue. At Bonnaroo and other fests, they give you a guide with the schedule and good bios on the artists. With multiple stages there’s a chance that different acts you want to see are playing at the same time, so prioritize and see if there are a few acts playing back-to-back on the same stage that you might want to check out. That way you can avoid bouncing from stage to stage. Navigating a crowd of 20,000–100,000-plus people takes time.

Resist the urge to party hard right away: multi-day fests are an endurance race, not a sprint. Drinking and indulging too much too fast in the heat is a sure-fire way to end up in the first aid tent. Be cool.

Bring a light backpack (or better yet, the previously mentioned CamelBak) into the venue with some water and snacks to keep you going, and a small blanket to lie on so you don’t have to sit on the grass. Tossing a small flashlight in your pack is also a good idea, so if it gets dark before you get back to camp you won’t have to worry about tripping over tents, guy-lines or the occasional passed-out partygoer.

Expand your horizons and check out shows you aren’t familiar with. In addition to all the bands, most festivals also feature artwork, comedy tents and other side attractions, all of which are worth a look-see.

Above all else, have fun.

Tips
–A block of dry-ice, wrapped up in a towel and placed in the bottom of your cooler, will keep your stuff cold and save you from buying ice while you’re there.
–Sometimes a last-minute music festival road trip is just what the doctor ordered. There are usually scalpers selling tickets at the gate, and with skillful negotiating—and possibly bartering—you can sometimes get a good deal. But be careful. Where there’s tens of thousands of people wanting to see a good show, there are often one or two bad apples selling rotten tickets.
–If you’re making a road trip out of it, make sure to give your car a once-over before you leave. Check the tires before you light the fires!
–Stash a small notebook and a pen in your backpack to jot down contact info and other things worth remembering once you come down/home.