| Here are the golden rules for buying your festival | | | | enough for most festival weather situations. |
| tent: | | | | 3. Choose a tent with a porch. Even if it's a very |
| 1. It should be easy to pitch. The last thing you | | | | small one, this will provide a place for you to |
| want is to spend your entire first day trying to | | | | take off and store your muddy boots and |
| work out where poles A-K should go when your | | | | therefore prevent the inside of your tent getting |
| favourite band is playing on the main stage. The | | | | filthy. |
| most popular festival tent, the dome, is usually | | | | 4. Size is everything. Every tent comes with a |
| very easy to pitch and is a solid choice for the | | | | 'person' capacity rating, but these rarely take |
| average festival camper. If you want minimum | | | | luggage into account. When you are festival |
| effort, consider buying a pop-up tent. Ideal for the | | | | camping, each person may well have a large |
| lazy or inexperienced camper, these tents | | | | backpack that will need to be kept inside the tent, |
| 'magically' erect themselves when they are | | | | so you should therefore allow for an 'extra' |
| thrown in the air, and have gained in popularity | | | | person to accommodate this. For example, if |
| over recent years. Most specialist outlets and | | | | there are two of you, get a three-person tent. If |
| camping fairs will have people on hand to | | | | there are three of you, get a four- or five-person |
| demonstrate the tents to you – ask if you | | | | tent. Having said that, if you are planning to arrive |
| can try them out for yourself. Before you leave | | | | late to an event, the smaller the tent the better. |
| for your festival, why not have a trial-run in the | | | | This will mean that you can squeeze into a tight |
| garden? | | | | spot rather than be forced to spend the |
| 2. It needs to be waterproof. No forecast is | | | | weekend next to the toilets. |
| 100% certain, so even if the weatherman says it'll | | | | 5. You need to make a balanced judgement on |
| be sunny, best stay on the right side of fate and | | | | price and quality. Don't buy a top-of-the-range |
| bring a waterproof tent! To have even a chance | | | | mountain tent for a weekend in a muddy field |
| of staying dry, you need a double-skin tent with | | | | with 20,000 other muddy people, it'll just get |
| an inner tent and outer flysheet. Very cheap | | | | ruined. Equally, don't go for the cheapest tent that |
| dome tents are often single-skinned, as are many | | | | you can find, as it's unlikely to get you through to |
| low-range pop-up tents. If you want to be certain | | | | the end of the festival comfortably. Check the |
| to stay dry, look for a tent with a hydrostatic | | | | seams, zips and quality of the poles before you |
| head of 1000mm or more, which should be | | | | buy. |