Festival Camping Tips For Musicians And Fans

By How Folk Music Influences Modern Songwriters
Comments 35
20 Jul 2026

Festival Camping Tips For Musicians And Fans

Choose A Tent That Fits The Field, Not Your Ambitions

At most UK folk festivals, your pitch is roughly the size of a decent picnic blanket. A six-berth palace will have stewards politely asking you to shuffle, and your neighbours will be listening to your guy ropes all weekend. A compact two or three-person tent is easier to pitch, easier to carry from the car park, and much warmer once you're inside. If you're travelling by train or coach, a small tent plus a rucksack is the difference between a pleasant walk and a slow, sweaty trudge.

Arrive in daylight if you can. Pitch on level ground, door facing away from the prevailing wind, and check for dips where water will pool after a night of rain. Look up before you peg out: a branch overhead will drip on your flysheet until 3am. Keep guy lines short and mark them with a bit of bright cord so that a fiddler carrying a case in the dark doesn't go headlong over them.

Bedding: The Bit People Regret Skipping

Cold is the number one reason festival-goers leave early, and it's almost always fixable. Air beds are comfortable but chilling: the air inside them cools to ground temperature overnight. A foam mat or self-inflating mat underneath you is worth more than an extra blanket on top.

Sleeping bag rating: look at the comfort rating, not the extreme one. A three-season bag suits most British festival nights from May to September.
Layer up: a silk or fleece liner adds real warmth and washes easily afterwards.
Dry clothes for sleeping: a damp T-shirt from a long session will keep you cold for hours. Keep one set aside in a dry bag.
Hat and thick socks: unglamorous, unbeatable.

Expect the temperature to drop sharply around 4am, just as the last session finishes. If you've planned for that, you'll sleep well while others are shivering in the queue for the showers at dawn.

What Actually Earns Its Place In Your Bag

Space is precious, so pack things you'll use more than once a day. Wet wipes, hand sanitiser and a small towel handle most of what a shower block can't. A head torch is far better than a handheld one because it leaves both hands free for tent zips, instrument cases and mugs of tea — choose one with a red light setting, which won't blind everyone in a late-night song circle and preserves your battery.

Power bank and spare batteries for torch, phone and tuner.
Waterproof coat and wellies, even if the forecast is glorious.
Bin bags: for rubbish, for wet clothes, for a sudden downpour over your rucksack.
Earplugs and an eye mask if you're camping near the late-night bar.
Blister plasters, paracetamol and rehydration sachets.
A sit mat or folding stool — you'll thank yourself at the third session of the evening.

Looking After Instruments And Valuables

An acoustic instrument hates damp and heat in equal measure. A fiddle or guitar left in a tent on a warm afternoon can shift, and a wet case lining is a slow disaster for springs and tuning pegs. Keep instruments in a hard case when you're not playing, close the case after every tune, and never leave one in a parked car on a sunny day.

Put your name and a phone number inside the case, and take a photo of the instrument and its serial number before you travel. If your instrument is valuable, check it's covered away from home. For everything else — phone, wallet, keys — use the festival lock-up if one is offered, and split your cash between two pockets rather than keeping it all in one place. Sleep with your essentials inside your sleeping bag liner, not loose in the porch.

Food, Water And Pacing Yourself

Festival weekends run on adrenaline, and adrenaline runs out. Eat at least one proper meal a day, use the free water points to refill a bottle rather than buying plastic, and keep something easy in the tent — oatcakes, nuts, fruit — for the moment you wake up ravenous. Alcohol, sun and skipped meals are a miserable combination, and a two-hour session in a hot marquee will dehydrate you faster than you think.

Singers and players should treat their voice and hands as working equipment. Warm up before you launch into a big ballad, don't spend the afternoon shouting over a loud PA and then wonder why you can't hold a note at midnight, and stretch your hands and wrists between sets. Look after your mates, too: the person who's gone very quiet is usually the one who needs a cup of tea and a sit down.

Leave No Trace — And Leave A Good Impression

Take everything home with you. Tents, pegs, broken chairs, half-full gas canisters and abandoned sleeping bags all end up in landfill, and festivals increasingly charge for the clean-up. If your tent survives, take it home and use it again; if it doesn't, pack it out rather than leaving it hopefully by a bin.

Do a final sweep of your pitch for pegs, cable ties and stray litter.
Respect any quiet camping area — and your neighbours at 3am.
Check the site rules on fires; many permit only raised braziers, and some ban them entirely.
Thank the stewards and volunteers. They make the weekend possible.

Do all that, and you'll come home with a full repertoire, a few new friends and a tent that still smells of woodsmoke rather than regret.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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