Begginers help!

[Mega Ross]

Get a light coloured tent and make sure it's double skinned.

Dark coloured tents become ovens on hot days, single skinned tents leak when it rains. Don't put your ropes out too far, people walking between tents will just boot them out. Take notice of landmarks (For example, at Reading we camp in red, parallel to the waterslide, about 30ft from the piss wall.) Gazebos are always good points of reference for finding your tent too, on the subject of gazebos, our little festival group always brings at least 2 (theres between 20 and 30 of us depending on the year), it's just somewhere to hang out when theres nothing going on, have some drinks and whatever.

Decent sleeping bag + something to put underneath, self inflating mats are awesome. I got one from millets for £15 (half price) and it's lasted me 2 festivals and numerous campouts so far.

Camping chair, don't leave it outside to get nicked, people are pikeys.

Wellies and trainers. And about a million pairs of socks.

Clothes aren't essential, what you're wearing should suffice.

Bin bags to keep stuff dry.

Ducktape, it fixes all.

Radio is always a good one.

Trolley for carrying crates into festival (a strong one!)

Decent hiking backpack, and put the gay waist strap on, it looks gay but it'll save your back and shoulders.

3 things will make the longdrops bearable.

Stick a binbag round the seat, shit in the bag then drop it down when you are done.

Spray a scarf with deodrant and wrap it round your face.

Baby wipes, quicker wiping than bog roll.

I chundered from the smell so many times before I discovered this.

I try to just shit in the toby carvery every morning and hope I don't need another but it rarely works with the amount of beer and fast food going in, not sure what leeds is like for local pubs.

Best thing of all, be social, meet some people, have fun, enjoy the music. Try new things.

There really is nothing like a festival.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

self inflating mats are awesome. I got one from millets for £15 (half price) and it's lasted me 2 festivals and numerous campouts so far.

[chappiepunk]

3 things will make the longdrops bearable.

Stick a binbag round the seat, shit in the bag then drop it down when you are done.

Spray a scarf with deodrant and wrap it round your face.

Baby wipes, quicker wiping than bog roll.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Another thing on the longdrops, always try and go in one a female has come out of, females will generally leave it alot cleaner than the males.

[chappiepunk]

I can't remember seeing unisex toilets last year at Leeds.

[Mega Ross]

Out of interest, just how comfortable and reliable are those things? I was looking at them last year and just thought of them as nothing more than disposable lilo's more than anything, except a bit thinner.

I advise lightweight camp beds because at least underneath them you can store various odds and sods and free up more room inside your tent.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Not in the campsite? At Reading all the campsite toilets are/were unisex, just in the arena they were split.

[chappiepunk]

Depends how clean the girl is, I've seen used tampons left on the seat before, girls come out and there is piss f**king everywhere (where I assume they've hovered and missed the hole to the communal vat of horror.

[chappiepunk]

I only used the long drop in Green, and Brown was portaloos, but they were both seperate at Leeds. I can't speak for the other camps but I think it was the same in Orange, and it was definitely the case in the arena.

Having seperate loos is a good idea because - as you say, girls leave the toilets a lot cleaner than men do and if the toilets are unisex then it doesn't matter if a girl uses it or not because at some point a guy will eventually go in and f**k it up, not just for other guys seeking cleanliness but girls who thrive on cleanliness already. That's why most places have seperate facilities for both sexes.

[Mega Ross]

haha, I think in general the girls are cleaner than most guys, but you do get the odd ones out!

[Dave The Hedgehog]

This was just something that popped into my head after reading about Mega Ross' Notebook BBQ suggestion on the other thread.

If you want an effing great way to cook food, use something called a Flame Disk. (Google it)

I was in Home Bargains last year looking for random cheap crap that might come in handy and between me and my girlfriend, we bought about 15 of these things to take with us to Leeds as well as on a camping trip to Devon, and they were the most amazing things to use to cook food.

Basically, they're disposable barbecues but instead of charcoal they're filled with butane gel - put them in a bucket barbecue, set them alight and you've got an instant barbecue for around 40 minutes. They're significantly smaller than disposable barbecues and they don't let off half the same smell that I got absolutely sick of last year at Leeds. If you can be bothered to make the effort in the mornings, you can use them to fry up a decent cooked breakfast too. They were one of the best things we took to Leeds last year - by no means essential, but a bloody great way to cook food and a decent alternative to something like a Trangia. They're not expensive either.

[j-j-j-j-joe!]

Not in the campsite? At Reading all the campsite toilets are/were unisex, just in the arena they were split.

[chappiepunk]

Ah, well that explains the words 'Girls' and 'Boys' written on the side in huge white painted letters...

[Calzum]

Anybody know the best site to buy tickets off? i went last year though i brought it on eBay after the rest of the NME stage got announced.

I'm normally a SeeTickets kind of guy but heard they where pretty shit when it comes to Festival tickets lol

[Rudzkii]

Ticketmaster is usually a safe bet but the majority of tickets go to See. You'll always get people complaining when something goes wrong which it is bound to do in one or two instances. Must say that the four years I have used See I've not had any problems. Take from that what you will.

[Mega Ross]

Remembered another nugget of festival wisdom.

Buy a gallon water bottle, empty it and refill at the campsite.

Best water carrier in the world.

[dannyv18]

a top tip... for a fest virgin (me last year) dont be scared to use the longdrops!! hahaa

i was too pussy to use them till friday morning where i just couldnt hold it anymore and it kinda ruined my first few days ... just man up ... there not that bad!

another tip is every morning we went to our car to get what we needed... we left valuables in there.. had 30 mins in the car just chilling and checking phones, getting changed every day etc... soo much better then leaving it in your tent and a possibilty of it getting robbed >.< .. dont fancy my clothes being robbed tbh!! hahaa

also.. if your scared of getting burnt alive on sunday night just sleep in your car we did this last year.. had the best night sleep and got out of the fest with no queues in the morning .. we packed up sunday morning and took it all to the car... worked out very well

[dannyv18]

double post

Edited March 20, 2011 by dannyv18

[chappiepunk]

I wouldnt want to leave valuables in my car, still a chnace of that being broken into. My phone and wallet I always carry on me.

[Rudzkii]

Double post is win.

I agree about going back to the car in a morning, we kept non essentials like clothes and wellies in the boot and just took beer and snacks to tent. Having said that we drove to sainsburys every morning (leeds) for the obligatory poo. Until Sunday morning when they clocked on and put the out of order sign up.

Long drops / arena loo's are ok first two days but we had to bail on them and hit the town days after. My mate even went as far as to drive home (a good 40 miles) to paint the town brown. We laughed.

[rachbon]

a top tip... for a fest virgin (me last year) dont be scared to use the longdrops!! hahaa

i was too pussy to use them till friday morning where i just couldnt hold it anymore and it kinda ruined my first few days ... just man up ... there not that bad!

another tip is every morning we went to our car to get what we needed... we left valuables in there.. had 30 mins in the car just chilling and checking phones, getting changed every day etc... soo much better then leaving it in your tent and a possibilty of it getting robbed >.< .. dont fancy my clothes being robbed tbh!! hahaa

also.. if your scared of getting burnt alive on sunday night just sleep in your car we did this last year.. had the best night sleep and got out of the fest with no queues in the morning .. we packed up sunday morning and took it all to the car... worked out very well

[Mega Ross]

Who the f**k is going to steal your clothes? Really.

And what does it matter if they do? You're going to smell like shit at the end of 5 days anyway, a change of socks is nice but anything else is pretty pointless if you ask me.

Any valuables I bring are what I carry on me, anything left at the tent I am prepared to lose (including the tent).

The phone I bring is an old redundant phone with a spare battery (motorola razr), the sim card is all I care about purely from a convinience point of view, the wallet is an old wallet with a bank card, id and some cash. And I sleep with both in my sleeping bag, no one will get near those things and they are really all that matters.

Don't think I could be bothered to go back to a car every morning either, I like waking up, splashing water on my face, a quick chav bath (lynx baby), and then sit back at the fire for the first can of the day before trekking off for a bacon bap and a shit.

If you really must bring your fancy phone, several hundred in cash and a whole bunch of fancy stuff you are expecting to be still good after the festival, get a locker.

As far as "scared of being burnt alive" I've slept in a car before, I'd rather take the risk of them dragging my 148kg body on a fire personally.

Edited March 20, 2011 by Mega Ross

[dannyv18]

hahaaa .. my friend had his clothes stolen believe it or not :|

i was really scared of having stuff stolen... we had a huge 8 man tent near the footpath next to a big england gazebo.. was an easy target!!

we left everything in the car but valuables in a secret compartment under the seat... i dont think someone would break into a car when they could easily get stuff from peoples tents

and for the walk.. we went to meet people in orange and have breakfast in orange everyday sooo was just like... might aswell hahaa... got abit annoying to be fair :/ tho was nice to chill with a loud speaker and proper music with the doors open just chilling with an ice cold can of beer (yes we took a cooler box ) hahaa was soo much better then warm beer

[chappiepunk]

a secretcompartment under the seat? If you break into the car under the seat is the most obvious place to look, seems a strange place to put a secret compartment!

[dannyv18]

noooo hahaa you had to move the seat back and take out the rug then slide it back and then twist it and we couldnt even figure it out :L had to ring our friends dad!! hahaa