Festival season is in full swing and here at Mankind, we’ve been chatting about what essentials we’ll be taking, along with our top festival tips to make sure we survive the duration. If you’re heading to a festival in the UK the chances are you’ll be experiencing a mixture of scorching sun and blistering rain and wind, making packing light rather difficult. It’s also important to make sure you do your research on the festival you’re heading to. Make sure you find out the acts and exactly where the festival is taking place. The last thing you want is a nightmare journey to a festival you presumed was easy to get to that is filled with acts you don’t care about and music you don’t like!
Once you’ve decided which event you’re heading to and how you’ll be getting there, it’s time to think about what you need to take with you. Here is our list of festival essentials and some top tips for making sure you don’t get caught out!
1. Tent – It’s a pretty obvious one but you definitely would be stuck without it! Try to get to the site early and find a flat patch of land to pitch your tent on so you don’t end up rolling into your camping partner in the night! We also recommend finding a pitch that’s not at the edge of a walkway to avoid people passing your tent drunk. Make sure once you’ve picked your spot you find something close by to use as a landmark so you can find your tent later on!
2. Layers – It might be warm in the day, but you’re sure to get cold at night. There’s nothing worse than leaving a festival with those ‘festival-blues’ and a terrible cold. Pack your sleeping bag and a few jackets and jumpers so that you can layer up at night!
3. Waterproofs, Wellies, Suncream – If your festival of choice is in the UK, you’re going to need to pack for torrential rain and a heat wave. Wellies are an obvious essential, but make sure you have a waterproof jacket of some sort too. If you’re lucky and get some sun, be sure to use some sun cream. We recommend the Jurlique Sun Specialist SPF40 Cream, which offers UVA and UVB protection, preventing burning, skin damage that causes premature ageing, and an added dose of moisture and hydration for your skin!
4. Portable Phone Charger – Some people will say you should enjoy the festival and not spend the duration taking pictures, tweeting and instagramming, but we think the odd bit of social bragging and memory keeping is fine! Some festivals have charging stations, but who wants to leave their phone for an hour to charge, or worse, wait there while it’s charging? We recommend getting yourself a portable charger so that you can enjoy the whole festival without worrying about your battery dying and not being able to find your friends! This Veho Pebble Smartstick is perfect for charging on the go as it’s light and slim and should charge your phone fully at least once!
5. Bag – Even if you’re travelling by car, you might have a bit of a walk to the actual campsite once you arrive at the festival. To carry everything you need to your pitch you’re going to need a big bag. We recommend the Herschel Supply Co. Men’s Nylon Little America Backpack or the Fjallraven Duffle No.5, perfect for lugging your essentials handsfree!
6. Washbag – We know that keeping clean is often the last thing people worry about when at a muddy festival, but keeping your skin feeling fresh for the duration is sure to make you feel and look less tired and give you a slight edge over the other guys! We’ve been handing out our Mankind Tour Pack’s to bands on tour, with the Scaramouche & Fandango Wash Bag, perfect for your grooming festival essentials! We’re sure we don’t need to tell you this, but take some deodorant! Here at Mankind we love the Bulldog Original. Other essentials we recommend to keep you feeling fresh are the Fudge Dry Shampoo to absorb any oil and keep your hair looking clean and the Murad Clarifying Wipes to remove the grime of the day at night and freshen you up in the morning for a full day of festival festivities! If you’re looking to sharpen up your look even more, we’re loving Hanz De Fuko’s Quicksand. It eliminates oil on the hair and scalp, and creates a high hold dry matte look, perfect for messy, easy to create style!
Source: @Gottwood
A few other top tips to remember are:
✓ Take some Anti-Bacterial Gel with you. Festivals aren’t the cleanest places at the best of times.
✓ A torch will come in handy. Most of us will have one on our phones now but you’re likely to want to keep as much battery life as possible!
✓ Take cash out before you get to the festival. Not all festivals will have ATM’s and those that do will either charge you or take up an hour or more of your time in the form of queues! Make sure you keep your cash on you though and don’t leave it in your tent!
✓ Drink a lot of water, especially if it’s hot. Whether you decide to drink at a festival or not, being stood up all day in the sun and most likely eating salty and unhealthy foods is likely to dehydrate you. Make sure you keep a few bottles of water in your tent and drink enough throughout the day. Just don’t wake up in the morning and mistake the bottle of Vodka for water!
✓ Plan with your friends what acts you want to see, the times and the stages they’ll be on before you go. There’s no need to spend money on a festival programme that way!
✓ If you’re taking any drinks into the campsite, pre-pour them into plastic bottles rather than glass – a lot of festivals don’t allow any glass bottles.
Are you heading to a festival this summer? Let us know your festival essentials and tips in the comments below! Share your thoughts with us over on Twitter and Instagram – @mankindcouk
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