Festival season is here in full swing, and we are here to embrace it with flower crowns, crop tops, and weird body jewelry. If you’re losing your festival-virginity this summer, or if you’re seasoned festival veteran, packing for 4 to 5 days of showerless-camping and non-stop partying can be tricky. I have compiled a list of essentials that you must have on your next music festival adventure from my own festival experience (like last year at Firefly when I did not shower and lost two pairs of shoe to the mud). Catch me at Firefly again this year in Dover, Delaware, FULLY PREPARED as I have learned from my own rookie mistakes… Take my advice and bring LOTS of dry shampoo.
11. Ice Money
Whatever your beverages of choice are, I bet you don’t want to drink them warm. Festivals pick up on this demand and meet you with a steady supply of over-priced ice (think five dollars per bag). So, throw all your spare change in jar the weeks leading up to your festival then exchange it for cash and there you have it, money for pricey ice that would otherwise be lost to the depths of your car seats.
10. Baby Wipes
Showers are a true rarity. If you do have access to showers, it’s probably a two-hour line for a $10 shower in a germ-y stall, so skip this nastiness and buy yourself a lifetime supply of baby wipes or shower wipes. I know, it’s gross, but it’s part of the experience. If you bring enough for wipe downs a few times a day you should be able to keep the sweat, mud and festival grime at bay.
9. Water Jugs
This is another part of my no-shower solution. Bring a few gallons to dump over your head/body to shampoo. Your hair will get pretty nasty and sometimes the dry shampoo just will not cut it, so recruit a friend to dump water on you and do the best you can.
8. Cheap Sunglasses
You will need them. You will also lose them. Leave your Ray Bans and Oakleys and Prada frames at home and find some cheap, plastic sunnies that you won’t be too sad losing in the mayhem of your midday EDM show.
7. Sunscreen
You will be wearing very little clothing. It’s hot, crowded, and there is no better time to break out a tiny crop top with layers of jewelry. Also: Suns out guns out. Slather your face, shoulders, and arms in some sweat-proof SPF and do not endure a painful sunburn for your entire festival experience. No one wants to put a girl on his crispy, fluorescent red shoulders at a concert.
6. Back Up Battery
For your cell phone, for your speaker, for your camera, for your air mattress, for your fans, for your whatever. I guarantee you’ll need to juice up some electronics and those charging stations are usually, full, far, sketchy, or all of the above. Keep this sucker locked up in your car.
5. Munchies
Nothing that requires ice, but bring all the staples: chips, candy, granola, fruit, pretzels, peanut butter– whatever you fancy that won’t go bad. Festival food is way overpriced, so bring whatever you may crave coming back at 4am from a Major Lazer rave. Water, may I add, is a great selection to have on deck.
4. Trash Bags
These will be the most multi-purpose and forgotten about items. You’ll need the for empties, dirty laundry, rain ponchos, tent mats, and even trash. Bring a few and do not mix your sweaty bandannas and high-waisted shorts in with whats left of your clean laundry.
3. Blankets and Towels
For sitting, chilling, sleeping, makeshift shade, and fake-shower towels. Do not make my mistake and have to wipe down with your boyfriend’s T-shirts or sleep on one, thin, layer of blanket.
2. Hats and Hair Ties
See: Water Jugs, Baby Wipes, and Sunscreen. Prevent scalp and shoulder burns with a hat. Haven’t washed your hair in four days? Hat. Another option for grimy hair is a hair tie. Throw it in a man bun or ladies, go for Kardashian braids and keep the nastiness out of your face.
1. Flag
Let me set the scene: it’s two in the morning, it’s dark, you and your friends are a few steps from sober, you’re dazed and confused from that late night concert, you’re dehydrated and exhausted, your campsite is at least half a mile away, and oops! You have no idea where it is. If you can remember the vague direction of your campsite, some kind of flag or obvious marker is key to making it back to crash. Do not stumble around in the dark, and especially if you get separated from your friends it is best to have a visible rendezvous.
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