Festival season is upon us! Although we are nearing the end of summer and have already seen performances from Glastonbury and Boomtown, some famous festivals are still left this season. A few honourable mentions are Reading, Leeds, CarFest South and Creamfields North, all of which are over this upcoming bank holiday weekend. A perfect weekend for roughing it on a campsite. The weather is still warm, and the bank holiday weekend allows for that extra day recovering from lack of sleep. If you are heading to a weekend festival for work or fun, the universal problem remains: what do I pack, and how do I fit it into one backpack?! Aside from tents and sleeping bags, here are some ‘must packs’ this festival season to save you some money.
A fully charged portable charger
Save yourself money this festival season and bring a fully charged portable charger with you so you can post photos and stay in contact with the outside world all weekend long. The team behind the festival will know how crucial it is to have a charged phone with you, even though the signal is usually less desirable in festival fields. Some festivals have stalls offering phone charging at a cost. Some may charge you over £5 for only an hour of charging, which won’t last you long when you’re trying to film your favourite artists. Invest in a portable charge which can be used year on year. With a fully charged and high-capacity power bank, you can keep your phone charged throughout the weekend.
Keep yourself clean this festival season with a Solar Shower
The days are long at music festivals, dancing in the sun for hours. Being crammed into a crowd like sardines. Bring a solar shower with you if you want to feel as fresh as a daisy this festival season. Avoid the long queues and cost of the festival showers and have an alfresco shower. Solar showers are simply a bag with a shower hose attached, fill the bag with cold water in the morning, leave it in the sun while you have your breakfast, and you should have warm water after 1 hour. If it isn’t as warm as you’d like, it’ll clean you and wake you up for the day of dancing and singing ahead. Hang the bag from a tree, or ask your friend to hold it and enjoy your eco-friendly, slightly colder shower.
Bring tapeeno as your VIP guest
Whether journeying to Reading for fun or business this weekend, bring tapeeno with you as the ultimate VIP guest this festival season. For those who never stop hustling and are taking their business on the road, tapeeno is the perfect payment solution for your android phone. If your business is in one fixed location for the rest of the year, you won’t want the cost of hiring an additional card machine for the weekend. tapeeno has no setup fees and doesn’t trap you into a lengthy contract. If you only want to use tapeeno for the weekend, you can! Pay as you go with tapeeno. If you are going to a festival with friends, tapeeno will be great company. Drinks and food at festivals can be expensive. Ensure you split the bill using tapeeno. Who has time to stand around typing in account numbers when your favourite artist is about to go on the main stage? With tapeeno you just type in the amount in the app, tap your card, and go! Get your money in your account before a set has even finished, ready for the following drinks round!
Stay hydrated and save money with a reusable water bottle
Reading Festival have already banned plastic bottles before their festival in 2019. They do, however, still offer water in aluminium cans. Don’t spend your money on water; bring a reusable water bottle or two to fill up for free at one of their many free refill stations. Keep one on you and one in the tent to ensure you constantly have access to water. All that dancing this warm weekend will get you feeling dehydrated quicker than you’ll realise. This will both save you money and helps protect the environment. Don’t cut into your drinks budget for the weekend by paying for water; instead, treat yourself to a nice cold beverage at the drinks tent.
Don’t pay for every meal; bring breakfast with you
Sleeping in a tent with no electricity or running water does limit the money you can save. There is no way for you to bring cold food to store for the weekend. It limits the ability to save lots of money by bringing your own meals. Also, there will be plenty of options of delicious food trucks and stalls, which will smell too good to resist. Breakfast will be the easiest meal to bring food for so that you will have something to eat straight away when you wake up as the sun rises and the birds sing. No one wants to be hungry, hungover, and in a long queue for food this festival season. Bring breakfast with you, pack some croissants for immediate consumption on those early mornings. This will tide you over until lunchtime and help lower the costs of an already expensive weekend. It also wouldn’t hurt to somehow squeeze some bananas or apples into the top of your backpack. Fruit is an easy breakfast snack. You may be craving something healthy and refreshing if you hit the burger stalls for dinner!
Whatever festival you are heading too this weekend, these steps will make looking at your bank account a little more bearable when you return home.
