Top 10 Festival Essentials!

Hey Coven! ⭐

Festival season is well underway, and many of you will have already been to a festival or two this year. Some of you will be seasoned professionals! Some of you, however, will have your first ever festival coming up! Exciting times!

Well, we are here to give you some friendly advice. There are certain things you just need to take with you to a festival, some things that you might not think about, but trust us, you don't want to get caught short! Obviously you need your tent and sleeping bag, if you can't remember them then frankly we can't help you. But what about everything else? Well here it is: our Top 10 Festival Essentials!

Do we really need to explain this? Festivals are dirty places! And unless you're going VIP, hot running water and luxurious hand soap ain't gonna be freely available! You can get some lovely smelling hand sanitizers nowadays too, so no need to smell of white spirit every time you want to disinfect!

You do not want to get caught without this! You might get lucky and find that every portaloo you enter has an abundance of loo roll, but it's really not worth the risk is it? To save space, opt for packets of pocket tissues instead of actual rolls of toilet paper. They're inexpensive, easy to pack, easy to carry around discretely, and most importantly, they do the job!

Everyone hopes for fantastic weather at festivals, and why not? There's nothing better than lying on the grass, beer in hand, listening to your fave band in the blazing sun. But when it's been three days and you now resemble a sun-dried tomato? That's not so good. Sunburn hurts. Really really bad. And more importantly, crucially in fact, it can cause severe, lasting, life-threatening damage. Sorry to get all serious but just wear the damn sun-cream!

What's this? We're telling you to protect yourself from the scorching heat and also pack a woolly jumper? Yes! That's exactly what we're doing. Aside from the fact that you can't always guarantee glorious weather, festivals get freaking cold during the night. Think about it: big open space, clear skies; all the heat from the daytime is gonna drift right away. Festival nights are freezing! Trust us, you wanna be able to wrap up warm.

The other weather type we have to be prepared for at festivals is rain, whether we want it or not. You may get lucky and have non-stop sunshine all weekend, but what happens if you don't? Let us paint you a picture... A grey mist descends upon the whole festival sight, that band you were watching now a blurry shape in the distance, rivers of mud running through the campsites, tents being carried away by mudslides, once respectable people covered head-to-toe in mud, only still recognisable as humans by the whites of their eyes and their cries of "ALAN!". And in the midst of all this chaos, you've lost your shoe somewhere in the swamp. Or maybe you haven't, maybe your footwear is expertly laced on, knots secured with all the skill and precision of a sailor. But now those laces are encased in mud, you can't see them any more, you don't know where they are, those shoes are never coming off!! In conclusion, wear wellies. This might also be a good time to tell you to take a rain poncho, which wasn't in our Top 10 because we totally forgot, but yeah, you don't wanna be soaked to the bone do you? You'll catch your death!

You might have packed enough beer and cider to take down a small horse, and you may well think you're all set, but you're wrong! You need water to live you fool! Sure you can buy a bottle for £3 from the ice cream van, but isn't it just easier to take your own? Campsites have drinking water taps that are free to use. You can buy collapsible water bottles that hold loads of water, so you can fill up, stay hydrated, and have water at your campsite for washing and brushing your teeth. Besides, we all know how damaging plastics are to the environment, be a hero and invest in something reusable!

Sure you could pack some shower gel and a towel, queue for hours to use the festival showers and come out smelling of roses, feeling clean as a whistle, only to get coated with a layer of mud, beer and smoke minutes after. Or you could pack some baby wipes and lower your standards for a weekend like us regular folk. Besides, a towel is bulky, and shower gel could leak in your bag.

Do we really need to explain this? You don't wanna find the perfect spot to watch your favourite act, for the sun to suddenly come out and ruin your view. And you don't wanna spend your whole weekend squinting, it'll give you a headache, and you'll have enough of them from all the Jaegermeister you put away.

We're not gonna tell you to pack a weekend's worth of food and a camping stove (although it's advisable) because there's nothing better than letting your hair down for the weekend and just going to town on all the different food stalls available. What's more is the choice of vegetarian and vegan options available gets better every year. But festival food doesn't come cheap, so if you don't wanna burn a hole in your pocket on the first day, pack some snacks. Cereal bars for breakfast, crisps for during the day, fun-size sweets for the evening, that sort of thing. Trust us.

Last but certainly not least! The camping chair is the hero of all festivals! We couldn't do without one. Some of the best moments you'll have at a festival are just chilling in the campsite, and you wanna make sure you're comfortable. Especially if it's wet, in which case sitting on the grass just isn't an option. Most festivals will let you take your camping chair into the arena as well, so if you're not bothered about getting to the front of the stage, you can set up camp towards the back and have a super chilled day, like the time we sat and watched Alice Cooper with a cup of hot cocoa.

So there we have it, our Top 10 Festival Essentials! Of course there's plenty of other things that's it's advisable to take, such as a few crates of beer and a fancy dress outfit, (not to mention all your #Rogueandwolf gear, they're real conversation starters!!) but as long as you remember our Top 10, you'll have a bangin' time, you'll be safe, and you'll be comfortable.

So from everyone here at R+W, have a wicked summer and try not to get too many sore heads!

Peace and love to you all ️❤️