Get Ready 2024 Festival Season: 10 Essential Accessories for You

What is a good festival like? I tell what; it is war. If a festival doesn’t make you feel like it’s the first quarter of the 20th century, and you’ve been stationed at Verdun, then is it really a festival? It could still be a real good concert, don’t get me wrong, but the joy of a festival is in the joy of survival.

1. Tent. Tent is love, tent is life. Also they didn’t take kindly to me digging a trench last time, so I’m going to take the closes thing to a T. If the tent is too big, you’ll be spending most of your time setting it up and taking it down. The tent setting and tent raising times should get shorter as you have to look less and less on the drawings and figure out which part goes into what, so calculate with roughly half as much time as it took the first time around.
2. Communication device. Getting lost, calling for help. Usually calling that help for someone else. Most of the time though, you will use it to find your lost friends. You would immediately think of a phone, and it’s not a bad call. They are valuable and easy to lose too though. Better to have something that is strapped to you. There are several smart watches that do the trick. Also some case for your phone that you can wear on your neck, or belt. Even if you go with the watch, probably wiser to get phone case either way.
3. Power bank Never leave home without it! Your phone? It is a soft brick without power. Some people have their watch run on electricity too. With this, you will also be the savoir of any group you are member of. Just make sure to keep it in your pack when not in use. It can easily get lost. Heck, maybe best if you tie it to your pack somehow, so you cannot take it far from the rest of your stuff. Or someone else cannot, but god forbid such suspicious thoughts.
4. Flare. Ask the organizers about this one. No one wants to be kicked out because of a little pyrotechnics from home. If they are no fun, you can have glowsticks too. They are great for letting your favourite band know you love them. Some ask for your phone to be held up, but that’s just because they know everyone has one. They would ask you to hold up your candles if that was in the norm. Speaking of which, do NOT bring candles. They are not really efficient sources of light, and are just fire-prone.
5. Earplugs. Never underestimate them. They take up very little space among your belongings, and yet can be very useful. Nobody wants to sleep bad on the first night of a festival, and feel like a zombie the day after, when you wanted to do things.
   The only reason not to take it, is if you are going on a music festival, where you love everyone. Never wanting to plug your ears. Also if you on drinking copious amount of alcohol, so the only time you’ll sleep, is at random intervals where you collapse.
6. Coat. It doesn’t matter how hot is it going to be. Always bring a coat. This piece of clothing will have to protect you from the coming rain, that usually comes out of nowhere. Hopefully not on the festival, but maybe on the way home. It can serve as an emergency tarpaulin to sleep on. Put it over your head to filter out sunlight when hungover. Bonus points if you can put the other items in the pockets. A smaller waka vape fits into any pocket easily.
7. Hand wipes. Two packages. If you take only one, you are going to try, and conserve your supplies. They are light, and easy to fit into your backpack. Use them liberally before and after eating. Especially if you do it with hand like with sandwiches or burgers. Don’t leave out a good burger. You might also want to do it a little bit after the toilet too.
8. Trash bag. If you are one of those guys who throws their paper cup away wherever they stand, then may you regularly find furniture in the dark with your pinkie toe. May you forget to close the sunroof on your car before a rain. May you have a great poop, then realize you are out of toilet paper. May you run out of battery on your phone, in a foreign city, and no GPS. May you forget to take out the paper tissues before washing. Where was? Right, trash bags. It’s going to help you collect your junk in your tent. You can even use it to collect your dirty laundry.
9. First Aid Kit. Yes, there are health professionals on every festival. They are often called superheroes, but they are not. They cannot fly, burrow, teleport, stop time, or see the future. So they will have to be warned when troubles up, and will have to wade through the crowd, like everyone else. That’s a lot of time to bleed out.
10. Emergency Folder. Wrapped in a plastic wallet (or plastic sleeves, or punched pockets, or whatever your local dialect calls them), that will protect the contents from moisture. This Emergency Folder is going to hold your maps of the surrounding area. The festival schedule, if there are any, your printed tickets for the bus, the train, or anything to get back to civilization. You can have these digitally too, sure. This is in case you run out of battery power. A few extra bank notes too, in case you lose your wallet, or your beco vape.
11. Bonus: Medical ID Bracelet. It has your name, blood type, known allergies, mostly medicine allergies, and emergency contact with your family. In case you lose consciousness, and you need immediate help. Mostly for people that have immediate complications, like being allergic to penicillin. Good to know if you are given a blood infusion, or plan on complete alcohol poisoning.