It’s morning. Your eyes are half open, your sleeping bag is half on and half outside your tent door. The floor of your tent is both sticky and slippery. Your tent frame is slightly bent and there is evidence that someone or something may have crashed into it at some point in the night. That’s right folks, it’s festival season. Here’s what you need to know to prepare for Camping at a Music Festival.
The Best Tent for Music Festival Camping
The single most important piece of gear to get right at a festival is the tent. Your tent will be your basecamp, shelter, meet up point, and ‘safe zone’. CanvasCamp is hard to impress when it comes to shelters and we take our festivals seriously. Many of the Sibley features are a direct result of our experiences at TomorrowWorld and Burning Man along with additional input from festival goers from around the world. Learn more about why the Mouflon is the best tent for festival camping. Even if you don’t go with a Mouflon, here is what to look for when shopping for a festival tent.
Rainstorms
All but the cheapest big-box-store tents are typically capable of handling a light afternoon shower. That’s just not good enough for multi-day festival camping. Before buying a tent, imagine a good hard sustained downpour: the water, the puddles, the mud, the wind, and the force of a storm on a tent. A waterproof canopy is just one requirement to keep you and your stuff dry. Dancing in the rain is awesome, but if you don’t have a set of dry clothes to change into, you’re going to have a bad time.
Make sure the tent is structurally strong enough to maintain its shape throughout a storm. It should have sturdy poles, guy lines, and good tent stakes to hold it down. The floor should be thicker than the canopy and 100% water impenetrable. Bathtub style floors that stand a few inches tall and connect directly to your tent canopy are ideal to protect against puddles and standing water. If your tent does not have a bathtub floor that meets the requirements, you’ll need a footprint. A tent footprint is a waterproof tarp that is cut to fit the shape of your tent. Never use a tarp that is larger than the floor of your tent! Rain will fall on the tarp and pool under your tent and everything inside will get wet.
Don’t forget to consider the usable space you have in your tent in a rainstorm. If you need to hold up for an extended period of time; make sure you have enough space to comfortably kick it and keep the party going. Having enough space for you, your stuff, and your friends is great; offering shelter to new friends and neighbors that didn’t plan for the storm is even better.
Heat and Humidity
Choose a canvas tent when camping in hot and humid conditions. Canvas is highly breathable (yet waterproof) and regulates humidity very well. Camping tents made from plastic (nylon, polyester) don’t breathe very well and are extremely uncomfortable in the heat. A lack of breathability in a tent fabric traps water vapor inside your tent, increasing humidity and condensation. Increased humidity in your tent means it will feel hotter when it’s hot and colder when it’s cold. If you’ve ever woken up in a tent and felt slightly damp, that’s condensation.
A tent fly is essential for all plastic tents in almost all conditions, and a good option for canvas tents in extreme conditions (heat and rain, cold and snow). A tent fly is a plastic cover that is custom fit to the shape of your tent canopy. The small space of dead air in between the fly and tent canopy acts as an insulator and can help keep your tent up to 10 degrees cooler (or warmer) than the ambient temperature outside.
Wind
When camping at any festival it is important to stake out your tent with guy lines. Lightweight aluminum stakes are ok, bigger steel stakes are best. Pound your stakes all the way into the ground or put tennis balls on top of them so no one trips and puts an eye out.
If you are camping at Burning Man DO NOT underestimate the wind! Anything that is not securely tied down will blow away. Rebar stakes are essential on the playa in our opinion. Read up on rebar stakes at BurningMan.org and heed those words!
Bugs
Ok so bugs aren’t weather, BUT they are part of nature an important consideration when festival camping. Make sure your tent seals up against bugs without limiting ventilation. Look for no-see-um mesh on windows, vents, and even tent walls (ProTech shout out).
Quick and Easy Festival Camping Tents
When it comes to multi-day festivals, the CanvasCamp Mouflon Tent is your go-to for a spacious and comfortable camping experience. Remember, space allocation can vary by event. If the festival offers open space camping, aim to arrive early and choose a spot on high ground, upwind, and away from the portable toilets. For high-density festivals that sell camping passes, such as Coachella, the allotted spots can be quite small, typically 10’ x 15’ for tent camping. The Mouflon Tent, with its compact design, fits perfectly in such spaces.
Setting up the Mouflon Tent is a breeze, even for one person. Unlike tents with numerous poles, the Mouflon Tent’s innovative pull-to-open pole system allows for a quick and hassle-free setup in less than a minute. It’s always a good idea to practice setting up your tent before the festival to ensure you’re familiar with the process and that all parts are intact and undamaged.
If the festival involves walk-in camping, meaning you’ll need to carry your gear, consider investing in a rolling cart with sturdy wheels. Not only will your back thank you, but so will your neighbors! A cart is invaluable for packing in, packing out, and resupplying your camp during the festival. Festivals unfortunately generate a lot of waste, including abandoned tents and camping gear. Even if you’re car camping, if you can carry in more gear than you can with two hands, you can also carry out more, helping to Leave No Trace.
Inside your Mouflon Tent, you’ll appreciate the ample space, especially if you’re camping at a festival for two days or more. The ability to stand up in your tent is a must, even if it’s just to change your clothes. The Mouflon Tent ensures that everyone inside has enough space to sleep, store their gear, and move in and out of the tent without stepping on each other.
Lastly, avoid leaving your gear outside your tent when you’re not there. Keep your cooler inside your Mouflon Tent to keep your ice cold for longer. Consider using a luggage lock to secure your door zippers. Theft at festivals is often a crime of opportunity; keeping your belongings out of sight and out of reach can deter potential thieves. Enjoy your festival experience with the CanvasCamp Mouflon Tent, where convenience and nature meet in perfect harmony.