Come next weekend I am going to my first music festival. I'm on my way to V Festival at Chelmsford with the following bands playing. (http://www.vfestival.com/index.php?pid=2124)

I was just curious if anyone here has been to a music festival before and if they can give any tips about festival life?

I went to <a href=http://myspace.com/insubordinationfest>this</a>.

I don't think there's that much you need to know. I recommend sleeping in your car rather than paying for a hotel room.

Are you camping at it? If so you won't get much sleep all weekend because people will stay up all night being rowdy and they have big floodlights in the campsites so it constantly seems bright outside. I remember on the Saturday at Oxegen I was woken up by SOME MESSING and I thought "Shit, I wonder what time it is, band's might have started!" and then I checked and it was actually only 4am or something. That's all part of the fun though, I felt, it didn't bother me.

Make sure to bring wellingtons too because if it rains the ground turns to slush. This is just the tip of the iceberg! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FATeNhfPvCI) Coming back from Muse on the first night I thought I was going to cry because it was so hard to actually lift your legs and the route from the arena back to the camp was one that I hadn't travelled before so for a long time I didn't even know where I was. I bumped into one of the guys who I went with though and we WENT BACK TOGETHER.

Another thing you might want to do is bring a few rolls of toilet paper and anytime you have to go to the toilet take them with you because they don't get restocked at all often. Baby wipes are good too for cleaning mud and stuff off.

Food and drink is ridiculously overpriced too, so keep that in mind and have plenty of money and preferably some stuff of your own so you can avoid having to stump up the money for all the crazy expensive stuff.

All in all man, I reckon you should have a great time just so long as you don't have OCD or something because the facilities definitely leave a lot to be desired.

I've never been to a proper festival and in fact all i wanted to say was you should drop by i only live 13 miles from Chelmsford

Summer is the festival season here, so no crazy wet bog mess tips for me, rly.

But yeah, I'd say plan ahead of time and schedule who you want to see and when. And if you want to be a real nerd, laminate a copy of the schedule(so it doesn't fall apart) to have in your pocket. Also arranging a meeting place with your friends could be handy if you aren't taking mobile phones around?

Toilets are always horrible at festivals though, so definitely bring along the bogroll. And don't bother with showering. Be prepared to be smelly, dirty and not care.

Make sure you've got everything well secured on your person eg a wallet chain, or a zipper pocket. Stuff goes flying easily in the huge crowds, plus some people are thieving jerks.

Water bottles may be a good idea too?

So how long is the festival. Just one night's camping or what? ANYHOO Have a blast!~


PS: TK why have I heard nothing about your experiences at that snazzy looking festival? REPORT.

Cheers for the advice peeps.

The festival is only a weekend, but we're arriving Friday and leaving Monday to make a holiday of it. So to speak. I've just sorted out my tent, sleeping bag, etc. There's 14 of us so we're going to club together for food and stuff. I'll make sure that we put bog roll in there somewhere.

Haven't got any wellies to wear - hopefully my hiking boots will suffice. And I'll pack plenty of clothes, etc.

I dunno man, if the boots are waterproof you should be okay since they'll do essentially the same job as wellies, but if not THE CONSEQUENCES COULD BE DIRE. One of the guys I camped with had boots and they didn't offer him a big pile more protection than some of the guys who'd been silly enough to just bring trainers.

Off to Reading again this year.

Going to be effin sweet.

I want to go to Reading but dust fills my pockets. :(

I am taking carrier bags and will do poops in my tent, cos horrific toilets.

Then I fling the filled up carrier bags through the air, into distant parts of the camp site, kekekekeke 8)

ah reading how i miss thee.
the always awesome line up.
the horribly overpriced food.
the gypsies selling beer.
soup and a roll 15p. sally army- your final festival day friend.
the escaped mental patients incinerating brown camp on the last night.
theres so much for the family to do.

I went to <a href=http://myspace.com/insubordinationfest>this</a>.

I don't think there's that much you need to know. I recommend sleeping in your car rather than paying for a hotel room.

You went to the insub fest? you lucky bastard.