With festival season right around the corner, there’s one question that never fails to weasel it’s way into your head moments before you leave to make the trek to whichever muddy field you plan to spend your weekend in.
“Have I forgotten anything?”
“Did I pack that?”
“Have I remembered this?”
Whatever iteration of phrasing the question takes, the feelings that accompany it are always the same; that niggling sense of doubt that burrows into your thoughts at the most inopportune moment. If you have enough time you unpack, check and repack your luggage, if the seconds aren’t on your side, however, you simply load up your luggage into the car and simply hope for the best when you check your bags on arrival.
But never mind any of that, as we at IndieCentralMusic are here to offer you a checklist of sorts including 8 Festival Essentials that you’ve probably not even thought of packing.
The unconventional festival essentials:
- Empty plastic bottles – Most festivals won’t allow you to bring in glass bottles on site, so if you’ve purchased any beverages of the alcoholic persuasion, e.g. a large bottle of Tesco’s own paint stripping vodka, then be sure to transfer them over to your empty plastic bottles before you get to the festival gates. And dispose of the glass safely, just because you’re at a festival doesn’t mean you have the right to be a knob. Just be sure not to mix up your clear spirits with your water supply, or you might get a particularly nasty surprise if you wake up feeling a little parched in the night. Also, it always helps to label your drinks too.
- Compact Cordial – Speaking of drinks, if you don’t fancy carrying an industrial sized bottle of Ribena around to make drinks, keeping a couple pocket-sized 66ml bottles handy can be a godsend for flavouring any questionably flavoured on-site water. Not to mention the fact that that little bad boy is perfect for making cider and blacks on the go.
- A washing up sponge and a travel shampoo bottle container (or even smaller) of washing up liquid – If you fan on cooking anything yourself whilst camping at a festival, I can’t stress enough the importance of having the means to clean your equipment. Unless you want to find more mould in your tent than in an entire uni accommodation shared kitchen, I’d definitely recommend you bring some washing up liquid and a sponge, so you can combine your bottled water to wash out any pots that may need cleaning.
- Cheap firewood – Whilst not a necessity, as you can probably buy it there. If you have the means of cheaply obtaining and easily transporting firewood to the festival, I highly recommend that you do so. this saves you the time and effort of having to queue up behind hundreds of smelly festival veterans in order to stay a little warmer in the evenings, as you wear an obnoxious looking bucket hat and drink Dark fruits in mud-soaked deckchairs.
- Tweezers – Not only suitable if you need to do a quick eyebrow touch up before going to see Catfish and the Bottlemen, but also in case you get a splinter from handling the aforementioned firewood.
- Condoms (obviously) – Should be a no-brainer for most, but because what happens at Y Not will probably stay with you forever, or until it’s 18 years old unless you pack prepared.
- Tampons – Even if thankfully you don’t expect to be visited by aunt Flo whilst at your festival of choice, as believe it or not, those cottony little beasts are a lifesaver when it comes to acting as kindling for the purpose of starting fires.
- Kitty litter – Not my tip, and weird I know, but hear me out. imagine waiting front and centre of the main stage, having braved the cold rain and mud all day solely to catch a glimpse of your favourite band play a headlining set. In the moment its all worth it, but once its over and the sense of excitement and adrenaline has started to wear off, and you suddenly realise just how wet your feet are, as you decided to bring canvas shoes to a festival that’s weather forecast suggested packing a raft rather than a tent. Just think how useful it would be to have a substance specifically designed to soak up moisture and eliminate odours, saving you from having to traipse round again the next day in soaking smelly shoes. Sounds pretty useful now, doesn’t it?
