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| Here's me at my first festival. so young. so very young. |
When I went to my first festival, I was rubbish at it. I bought a tent the day before, only took a sleeping bag and nothing to lie on, didn't take any weather appropriate clothes and forgot all the basics like hand sanitiser and loo roll. I spent so much money on food, it's obscene and I spent even more on alcohol. Oops.
I'm now nearly thirty and you'd think by now that I'll have learnt from my previous mistakes, The answer? Have I bugger. I leave tomorrow (at time of writing), I haven't packed a thing and I don't know where to start. I know that once Friday rolls along, I'll be so much more organised and the whole thing will be amazing. I just hope
Milly remembers her tent.
I have been going to festivals for a fair few years now so there are definitely at least SOME things I have go better at (clearly not packing) and it really does make me chuckle about how different my experiences have been over the years.
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| Reading Festival 2013 |
The Basics at 21
I took NOTHING. It felt like that anyway. I didn't take enough pants for a start and it's only by some divine miracle that I actually remembered a deodorant, srlsy. I had to do a hasty run to the nearest Asda to pick up things like dry shampoo and hand sanitiser. As they had CLEARLY sold out of little stuff (guessing other Festival goers were equally as crap as me) I had to leave with big bottles which then just had to be thrown away as I didn't have space to carry them back!
The basics at 28
Fortunately,
Push Doctor have sorted me out with the ultimate Festival Survival kit so I don't need to worry about it. even sun lotion! However, over most recent years I've made sure I have stocked up on travel bottles of all the necessities from superdrug way before hand. Less waste and less money spent. Winning on both fronts!
Sleeping plans at 21
My friend Silvia and I convinced ourselves that a tiny two man tent was all we needed... that meant very little space and a very uncomfortable floor. Sleeping in a tent is cold enough as it is but when there's just a thin piece of plastic and a sleeping bag between you and the ground, you get so much colder. Layering up with jumpers just won't be enough.
We had all of our stuff piled up at our feet so we had to sleep all curled up and woke up every morning with aching backs and necks. Totally don't recommend that nonsense.
Sleeping plans at 28
An air mattress is going to be your best friend. As will be a onesie. I plan on taking a Big Mac onesie with me because I am oh so classy and totally living the brand (#werk) as well as two sleeping bags
just in case.
Milly has a 4 man tent so we'll have plenty of space for all our crap too. YAY! SPACE!
Food at 21
The only things I took with me at my first festival was a cereal selection box and super noodles. i had a camp stove for coffee in the mornings because I genuinely couldn't survive without it. This is probably the only sensible thing I did but it was literally just used for coffee. Cue me spending a hideous amount of money on burgers and cheesy chips when I could have actually used the stove to cook those bloody super noodles...
Food at 28
I've become a bit of a foodie over the years but I know I can't expect anything fancy from the middle of a field. As gas stoves are now banned (thanks youths), Milly and I will be collecting a solid fuel stove, a kettle, tins of sketti, bread and basic breakfast stuff that will be easier to cook. And obviously coffee. At least this way we'll be saving a few pennies by having a half decent breakfast. It'll also give us more energy than my standard 21 year old breakfast of pro plus, dry cereal (where do you keep milk!) and coffee. That's the plan anyway.
Basic hygiene at 21
baby wipes. I don't even want to think about it. I am ashamed.
Basic hygiene at 28.
Use the showers. Not only will you feel more comfortable, the other people on the train home will thank you. They do get busy though so I tend to go either at ridiculous O'clock or if one of the opening acts aren't really doing it for me.
Alcohol at 21
Drinking and eating at festivals is where you're going to spend most of your money. Plus there are all the queues and I had to carry my passport with me at all times because I looked (and sometimes still do) like I was 12. Not exactly ideal. Luckily our Festival Friends were better prepared than us and kindly shared their booze with us.
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| Such a classy chick. Some things never change. |
Alcohol at 28
You don't necessarily need it as much as you think you do. Yeah it's nice but that doesn't mean you need to go to the bar every 10 minutes. To make life easier for the young of face, you can get an over 18 wristband and leave your I.D. and valuables in a locker (rather than under your mattress or hidden in the lining of your sleeping bag) and one of the best choices is remembering to take booze with you into the campsite. You can't take it into the arena but you'll definitely thank yourself later.
Money at 21
I had no budget. I used the cash machines that charge you an absolute fortune. I spent so much money on my card without a single thought that I lost count of my spending. Such regret in my life choices. I was broke for the whole of September...
Money at 28
I'll be taking a set amount of cash but I don't want to be oh so very poor in September again. For emergencies, I also have my Monzo Card (if you don't have one, get one) for emergencies which is very handy and can track all my spending. I'm desperately hoping to keep everything to less than £200 but I guess we'll just have to see what happens!
Now, obviously everyone's Festival Experience is going to be different, these tips are just based on my own. Push Doctor actually have their own rather nifty
Festival Survival Guide that's definitely worth a gander. You may find your own way surviving 4 days in a field and if you do
please teach me your ways.
Really, the only thing that matters is that you have a whale of a time. Dance, be silly, sing and giggle until your ribs hurt. You're going to love it.
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| Reading 2013... I'm not really sure what's happening either |
*Disclaimer: This post is in partnership with Push Doctor but all lessons and tales of tragedy are my own. #SorryNotSorry
