One of the best parts of outdoor music festivals is the camping. When you’re facing a multi-day festival scenario far from home, it pays to make camp as comfortable as possible. This is your home base for relaxing, hammocking, napping, and (if you’re lucky) sleeping – so check out the following tips for setting up your festival campsite for maximum potential.

Pick Your Spot & Mark It Well

Most festival camping areas are first come first serve. As soon as you arrive, drop your gear or an object like a tarp or rug to mark your spot. Bonus points if you can find a spot near trees to hang your hammocks. Once you’ve set up camp, consider hanging up a tapestry, flying a flag, or staking a totem to make your campsite easily recognized from a distance. And then memorize your location so you can find it from muscle memory in the dark.

Create Your Own Privacy

Most outdoor music festivals have dedicated camping areas in open, exposed land and fields. This means that once the rest of your fellow festival-goers show up, you’ll likely be in close quarters. To create some personal space, set multiple tents up in a horseshoe shape with the entrances all facing a common area. Now you’ve given yourself some artificial boundaries and privacy for outfit changes and undisturbed slumber.

Canopies

We know, it can feel like tailgating, but bringing a canopy to festival camp is worth the investment. It provides shade from the sun and protection from the rain, plus it provides a sense of containment and privacy. Set it up over your common area to round out your setup.

Store Up Water & Cold Beverages

Beat the water lines by bringing your own water tank and filling up your bottle or hydration pack at camp. And remember: Nothing beats a mid-day refresher at grocery story prices. In the heat of the day, hunker down under your canopy or tents for your cold drink of choice.

Get Creative With Your Hygiene

Keep baby wipes, biodegradable soap, and a solar shower handy in case the lines at the festival showers are too long. The nice thing about Chaco sandals is that you don’t need to take them off for your shower!

Dress Up Your Camp With Tapestries

Walk the lanes at any festival camp and you’ll see brightly colored, printed patterns adorning many a tent and campsite. Aside from being colorful expressions of our personality, a well-placed tapestry can provide some helpful function around camp. They give you a distinct visual to remember your campsite, they provide some privacy and boundaries, as well as some light shade and wind protection.

Change It Up – Camp Off The Ground

Ready to have your mind blown? Consider a tent camping situation where you never touch the ground. We recently got to explore the Tentsile Camp at Euphoria Music Festival in Austin, TX and we fell in love with these suspended tree tents. Check out Tentsile.com for more info.

Get Inspired

Need more Festival inspiration? Hop over to Pinterest to check out our style board and keep scrolling grab more ideas for your own festival camping experience. We’ll see you out there on the road!