I recently attended my 10th music festival. As you could already probably tell from my article about Sasquatch! Music Festival, I absolutely love music festivals, as well as camping at them. I love camping because it is truly an awesome part of the festival experience as a whole. Even in the middle of summer or in some of the hottest places, the weather can be unpredictable, so you have to be ready for anything. Here are a few things that are ESSENTIAL to camping during any music festival in any weather.
1. A tent, obviously. If you're camping, obviously you're going to need a tent. You should definitely have a sleeping bag, a good pillow and some sort of mattress so you don't have the most uncomfortable sleep of your life. You should also bring a tarp if there's a chance of rain, to keep over the tent.
2. BP tables. The whole weekend will be ruined if you don't have a couple plastic tables to play drinking games on -- preferably ones that you won't care if they get broken by the end of the festival.
3. Soccer tent. Whether it's sunny or rainy, bringing a soccer tent to set up chairs under for shade from the sun or protection from the rain is always a good idea.
4. Fold up chairs. Everyone needs to bring their own chair because regardless of how crazy people are getting, they're going to want to sit down at some point. It's better for there to be too many chairs than too little so that no one is forced to sit on the floor, which will most likely be covered in beer and food.
5. Good speakers. Pre-gaming for the concerts will NOT be fun without a set of loud speakers for your campsite. How are you supposed to get excited about the concert you're about to see without speakers to play their music on.
6. Flag. It is honestly so hard to find your own campsite or your friends campsites without something to mark it, especially at night after the concerts end. A flag set up way above the tents helps people explain where their campsite is to others visiting it.
7. Camping stove/grill. Unless you want to pay for every meal at the overpriced food stands where the lines are insanely long, you should probably bring something to cook on. Whether you like it or not, you're going to end up craving hot dogs while camping at a music festival.
8. Mophie case/other charging case. It's hard to find charging stations sometimes, so it's always a good idea to bring a Mophie or other charging case for your phone if you have one to use. It's easy to lose people and hard to find them again when everyone's phones are dead and your parents probably also want to know you're alive once and a while.
