Glastonbury Festival Camping Tips

Whilst going to the Glastonbury Festival is normally one of the highlights of the year, if you’ve never been to the festival before you may have some preconceptions as to what it’s like. This guide focuses on a possibly neglected aspect of the festival- camping and ensuring that you are in the position to get the maximum enjoyment from the festival. Our tips offer novice festival goers some ‘inside’ information that you might only otherwise learn from experience. So avoid a miserable or wet festival and follow our top 10 tips festival guide and we’re sure that you’ll have a fantastic experience.

Planning in advance can seem a bit dull and ‘geeky’, but when it comes to finding a location to pitch your tent this one can aspect can have a big impact on your festival experience. Ensuring you get to the Glastonbury site early means that you’ll be able to pick a prime location for your tent placement. Do some research beforehand and you’ll find that there are some locations people tend to pick depending on what they are looking to get out of the festival, for example if you like to watch the bands perform from the comfort of your tent, then the fields, Big Ground, Home Ground overlook the Pyramid Stage, but these areas fill up quickly. However, as with the prime locations, there are a few locations to avoid. If the forecast is for rain then you’d be advised NOT to pitch your tent at the bottom of a hill or close to where people walk as your tent could be engulfed with ‘rivers’ of mud. When picking a place to pitch your tent it may seem like a good idea to pitch it near toilets or pathways, but paths can get muddy and noisy, whilst the toilets after the few days could smell badly, so you’d be better off pitching some distance from both of these.

It might sound like an easy thing to accomplish, but if you’ve just bought a brand new tent, then pitching it can be somewhat more complicated than you might first think. If you’ve got a new tent for the festival season then why not save a lot of time, hassle and heartache by practicing pitching your tent before hand. If you live in the center of a big city then this may not be practical or possible, but ensuring you’ve read the instructions before hand can also be a time saver. When you come to securing your tent with Guy ropes, you’ll find that you might not actually need to use all the Guy ropes if there isn’t much wind. This can be advisable as it is routine for people to trip up over the Guy ropes when they walk past in the dark. By ensuring you minimize your use of Guy ropes and placing them closer to the tent than you normally would, this will reduce this phenomenon.

When you go to any festival it is best to only take with you what you can afford or are happy to loose. Therefore valuables should be kept to a bare minimum. Don’t leave valuables in your tent as tents could be robbed by other unscrupulous festival goers. Some people suggest padlocking your tent door when you’re not there, but this may not be a great idea for two reasons: firstly you give the impression that you have something valuable to steal, secondly a padlock will only put of the most opportunist of thief. If someone wants to get into you tent is it simply a case that that they can cut or rip their way in to get hold of your belongings. Therefore presume it is inevitable that someone is going to riffle through your tent, so leave the door unlocked and don’t leave anything valuable in your tent to steal. At Glastonbury, for example you’ll find secure storage units so if you do have something that you really don’t want to loose there will be a way for you to secure it. However there may be queues so ultimately it’s best to leave the majority of your valuables at home.

One thing you should consider is that most tent look fairly similar and when surrounded by thousand of other tents can disappear into a sea of tents quickly. Therefore it is important to recognize where you have pitched your tent, so that you can find it easily. This may sound like a fairly simple process in the day time, but after a few alcoholic beverages or/and at night then things can get a little bit more confusing. First and foremost memorize what field you have pitched your tent in, this at least will give you a decent starting point. Next you are looking for landmarks that you can follow to point you in the right direction. Don’t necessarily rely on ‘false’ landmarks, such as other people’s tent or markers as these can get moved or disappear. Some people use large flags to highlight where they are camping. If you do this remember to customize your flag as other people may have a similar flag to your own.

As you’ll be staying at the festival for numerous days you’ll need to ensure that you have a basic list of essentials with you. Firstly make sure you bring a torch as you’ll need this in the evening. Toilet rolls are handy to bring initially, but they are also readily available at Glastonbury (this may not be the case at other festivals though!), sunglasses to protect your eyes if it’s sunny, goes hand in hand with sun-block as sunburn can put a dampener on any fun. Bin-liners are handy for multiple purposes, such as keeping things dry or as used in their traditional method of having something to put rubbish in. Baby-wipes are useful as you will unlikely get a chance to shower for the length of the festival so they can be used to clean yourself when the stink gets too much.

Whilst it is important to plan ahead and bring enough essentials with you, forget the kitchen sink- weight can be an issue at Glastonbury. You may have to carry your gear quite a long distance so taking too much stuff to a festival can be a burden. At Glastonbury you will be able to buy plenty to eat and there are camping stalls that can cater for pretty much everything you need. You will have to pay a little bit more for this, but the prices aren’t astronomical. Generally when people plan a trip they cater for every possible think that could go wrong. At a festival this can be a mistake the less you have with you the better.

Make sure you don’t forget to bring some warm clothing with you. The festival might be at the height of summer, but going by its track record there is every possibility of rain. One of the worst feelings is that of being wet and cold. Bringing some waterproofs with you would be sensible whilst warm clothing for the evenings is a must. Even in the summer it can get quite cold in the early hours of the night so don’t forget that you’ll need more than just t-shirt and shorts with you. Try to bring some spare clothes with you, so that if you do get wet you’ll have something to change into, although it can be difficult keeping you belongings dry when the rain really does start to chuck it down- cue the bin-bags that should be on your equipment list!

With drunken people walking around in night, with Guy ropes strewn all over the place, it’s no wonder that accidents happened and tent and equipment gets flattened. Although it’s impossible to stop accidents happening, by bringing a roll of ‘gaffer’ tape with you to the festival, emergency repairs can be made to your tent and equipment. It may seem like overkill and unnecessary to bring tape with you, but it can be surprisingly useful and can get you out of a sticky predicament. If you are traveling with a group of friends as long as one of your group brings some to the festival then you should be fine!

Believe it or not there have been reports of thefts happening from tents when the owner was asleep in the tent. Whilst these occurrences are pretty rare they do happen occasionally so the best advice is to place your valuables in the bottom of your sleeping bag when you go to sleep. That way nobody can steal them without waking you up. It is important at any festival or event to keep in the back of your mind your own personal safety as there are times when you are more vulnerable. As mentioned previously there are secure storage areas at Glastonbury for belongings but the best course of action is to leave valuables at home. For example you may need a mobile phone to keep in contact with your friends, but perhaps you can use that as your main camera and leave your expensive digital camera at home? If your phone doesn’t have a camera, perhaps a few disposable cameras would be a good idea instead? Generally there are always plenty of alternative options to consider that will ensure the safety of your personal belongings.

Wellington Boots are the most flattering of items, but should be high on the footwear list when you are going to Glastonbury as more often than not you can expect some rain. After all, Glastonbury is held in the British Summertime, notorious for rain and storms. Although you can by wellies at Glastonbury as soon as the clouds start to form overhead these are the first things to sell out, so you’re better off bringing a pair with you. If you have hiking boots then these can be used as a substitute for wellingtons as these are also generally waterproof and are great in muddy conditions. If you’re going to buy a pair of hiking boots especially for Glastonbury, do take the trouble to wear them in properly else you might find that the hiking boots turn out to be one of the most uncomfortable pairs of footwear you can stick on your feet. Generally hiking boots need time to wear in and you will need time to get used to wearing them as they are generally stiffer, heavier and sturdier than trainers. It’s a pretty miserable feeling having wet feet, so definitely avoid wearing trainers and consider one of the above options as these will give you the best chance of keeping your feet dry and warm for the entire event. Remember if it does rain one of the key things you need to do is to keep the inside of your tents dry and free from mud, therefore outdoor shoes should be left outside if possible.