V festival

Posted by Briony Jones

Festival season is nearly over but there are still a few big guns left before the summer is out. V Festival 2011 starts on Saturday 20^th August so there’s still a week or two left to prepare. V Festival encourage the goCarShare scheme, which hooks you up with fellow festival goers in your area, thus saving on ridiculous petrol costs, limited parking spaces and, most importantly, nasty CO2 emissions. Built around Facebook, you can have a good old stalk of your potential travelling companions before committing to anything. OK, so you’ve got the ride sorted – now to pack the boot. Here are my top 5 must have items to take to a festival.

1) Your ticket

It sounds ridiculous but when in doubt, check, check and check again! No ticket = no entry so once they’ve been delivered, make sure you keep them in a safe place until the big day. You may also need your pre booked car parking ticket so maybe get a little dossier of festival documents together. Perhaps in a nice plastic docket in case of spills. At the end of the day, you’re not going to the moon, you’re going to a festival so anything you’ve forgotten you can just nip to the local shops, or pay extortionate prices on site, for. Except your ticket – you really do need that one.

2) Dry shampoo

I honestly can’t remember what I did before this miracle in a can came on the market. OK, I can remember… Reading Festival 2007, day 3: me, a bucket of cold water and a crowd of greasy but amused onlookers. Not my most treasured memory. These days I leave the bucket at home and just go well equipped with a can of dry shampoo and a hair band. I’d rather be a little bit slick in the hair do department than frequent any festival showers – I’ve seen bad things in there. Everyone looks rough at a festival so just deal with it!

3) Suncream

Don’t assume someone else will take it – they never do. Why don’t you be the hero? Just imagine all those shiny, happy (sunburnt) faces when you whip out a fresh tube of sun cream. You’ll be an instant hit. Friends for life. Perhaps marriage. And you’ll avoid painful sunburn on the silly bit of leg poking out in between your leopard print welly and cropped harem pants.

4) Cag in a Bag

Some would suggest wellies as the ultimate festival fashion but I’m an avid fan of the cagoule. Wellies are great if it’s been raining, don’t get me wrong. Integral in the fight against festival trench foot. But if the sun’s out, and let’s be positive and say that it will be, who wants to be lumbered with a massive pair of rubber boots? Not me. I suggest an old pair of shoes you really don’t care about getting messy, and a cag in a bag. Clip it to your handbag and forget about it till the heavens open. My absolute pet peeve at a festival or gig is a jerk with an umbrella, so I implore you to embrace the cagoule.