Festival Hacks: What to Bring to Festival Camping

As any seasoned festival-goer will tell you, there’s an art to festival camping. Come ill-prepared, and you could find yourself in a world of hurt - dehydration, sunburn, back pain - the list goes on. That’s why it pays to have a few tricks up your sleeve. 

Luckily for you, at Chilly’s, we know a thing or two about festivals and camping. After all, we have been the official reusable bottle supplier of Glastonbury for 4 years running… 

The golden trinity: what to bring to festival camping 

When we’re thinking about what to bring to festival camping, we like to think in terms of the golden trinity (in other words, the three things to double down on to avoid disaster): food, shelter, and hydration. 

Nail these three things and you’ll be thriving all-festival long, so you can focus on having a good time and nothing else. 

Festival Hack #1: Food 

Never underestimate the power of a good, nutritious meal at the end of the night or the morning before you kick off a big day of partying. A few meal-prepped favourites will not only save you from exhaustion and starvation, it’ll save you a few quid too. 

Festival food: how to do it right 

It all starts with the right container - something that will keep your food fresher for longer and out of harm’s way. Our food pots are perfect for this. They’re insulated, leakproof, and compact enough to fit into your bag without a problem. Buddy one up with a packable cutlery set and you’re ready for the fun part: recipes. 

While mid-festival, your mind may be on burgers and hot-dogs, but you might want to do your future self a favour and pack something healthy to eat while you’re busy dancing the day/night away. We recently collabed with a bunch of legendary food creators to put together some wildly delicious, healthy meal prep ideas. Check them out here. 

Festival Hack #2: Shelter 

We’re not going to tell you to bring a decent tent; we’re hoping you know to do that already. What we are going to tell you is to go overboard when it comes to your tent-interiors. 

A wise person (me) once said, ‘you will never regret over-preparing, you will always regret under-preparing'. So with that extremely ingenious advice in mind, we suggest going wild with your tent-prep. We’re talking extra pillows, night lights, speakers, room spray, blankets of varying materials and thicknesses, a portable mirror, cups, a ridiculously over-the-top mattress—we could go on, but you get the idea.  

Essentially, the ‘hack’ here is to make your tent so luxuriously lavish it could be featured on one of those Architectural Digest videos. 

Festival Hack #3: Hydration 

Last, but most definitely not least on our list of festival hacks is hydration. We really can’t stress this enough (and no, it’s not just because we sell water bottles): hydration is KEY when you’re partying hard. 

The hack is very straight forward. All you need is to come equipped with this thing, the mother of all water bottles. Available in 2L or 4L options, this bad boy will keep hydration-levels high and ensure you never go dry. 

*Bonus hack: our big mouth bottles are also great for storing beverages that pack an extra punch… mid-festival margaritas, anyone?    

As the old saying goes: drink smart, party harder. Words to live by, if you ask us.