Last Updated on 23 March 2026 by Colette
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Over the years I’ve written loads about taking your kids to festivals but time marches on and our kids will be 12, 15 and 17 when next festival season rolls around. Festivals with teens are very different to festivals with youngers kids – not better, just different, and as such it’s worth planning accordingly – especially when it comes to managing everyone’s expectations.
Taking your teens to festivals requires new guidelines and new boundaries – and all of these will be personal to your family depending on how much independence you think your teens are ready for (which might be different to how much they want) – trust and flexibility are going to be key to keeping everyone happy!
Are Festivals a Good Idea With Teens?
I think festivals with teens are a flipping great idea – we’ve been taking our kids to festivals for a decade now – to day festivals and to full weekend festivals, family friendly festivals and more grown-up music focused events. Ben actually said to me last year that he loves that he has grown up going to festivals – I love that we’ve been able to share these experience together, to share our love of live music and dancing with our kids and to give them experiences that will prepare them for attending festivals with their friends when they are older.
As our kids have got older, we’ve been able to relax more – it started small with letting them go off to the toilet on their own and make their way back to us, then moved to sending them to buy their own food from vendors and coming back to us. At Tramlines a couple of summers ago we pushed it a bit further and left Ben and Amy to watch a performance on the main stage whilst Dave, Chloe and I went to one of the tents. We did the same at Hardwick Festival last year too.
Taking your teens to festivals isn’t an all or nothing situation, it is in fact a great way to give them some independence and test some boundaries to see what works and what doesn’t so that one day, when they’re at a festival on their own (and believe me that time is coming up fast for us), you’ll have peace of mind that they have those experiences under their belt and can handle it.
Whilst most festivals have an age 16+ or age 18+ policy for teens attending on their own, I do think your own personal judgement on your teen’s maturity matters too. We have agreed with our kids that at 16 they can go to a day festival on their own if they want and we will provide the taxi service, if they want to go to a weekend festival at 17 then we would want to be onsite.
Choosing the Right Festival for Teens
Choosing the right festival is key if you’re looking at giving your teen their first festival experience (be that with you or on their own). I would suggest that shorter festivals or family-focused ones work best. I know that if you live over near York and Leeds, heading to Leeds Festival is something of a rite of passage for kids finishing their GCSEs but based on my own experience of Leeds Festival (admittedly some 20 years ago now) it’s not a festival I would necessarily choose for my kids’ first festival without adults!
We’ve been to some gorgeous family festivals over the years (Just So Festival was the perfect start to taking our kids to festivals) but now the kids are older, our priorities have changed – the line up matters more for a start!
What to look for when choosing a festival for teens
Clear family zones – festivals like Y Not have separate family camping zones which can only be accessed by those with family wristbands. In theory this will be calmer and safer than the main camping area!
Decent food options – Eating at a festival is an expensive business but you want to know that when you do pay through the nose for your dinner, everyone is going to enjoy it! This is going to be especially important if your teens are going off on their own because you want to be sure they are going to eat a decent meal.
Strong phone signal – this is a bit of a tricky one as, in my experience, phone signal at a festival is always going to be iffy just by virtue of how many people are on site in what is generally quite a rural area. Some networks do better than others so it’s worth joining facebook groups for the festivals you’re looking at to see what people’s experiences are.
Teen-friendly line-ups – not everyone will like every performer across the course of a weekend but you want to know there’s going to be enough to keep your teen’s happy. My three have got their eye on Y Not Festival for 2026 as they love The Streets, Two Door Cinema Club and Dizzie Rascal. We had to leave part way through The Stereophonics headline set at The Big Feastival a few years ago because the kids weren’t in the mood . . .
Festivals That Tend to Work Well
Family-friendly festivals – Although you’re not looking for a strictly family festival anymore, family friendly events are a great place to start when it comes to taking your teens to festivals. We’ve found The Big Feastival seem to be a popular options for families who wanted to start giving their teens a bit more freedom. Family festivals have a tendency to feel safer, you know that everyone is here for the same reason – people are perhaps a little less drunk, you will see far less people (if any) off their heads.
Festivals with daytime activities – Whilst your teen might want to lounge around in the tent for hours, they might also want to get out and do stuff (or you might be the one that wants to get out and do stuff whilst they rest!) so finding a festival that has stuff going on during the day is key. Some festivals are all about the main stage with very little going on before early afternoon whereas others will have talks and activities – places like Camp Bestival and The Big Feastival do this really well whereas Y Not and Tramlines are more about the music.
Smaller, community-led festivals are a great option – especially if you want to let your kids go on their own. I’ve noticed in recent years a real trend for local cricket and rugby clubs holding small one day events which I think would be great for older teens to get a taste of festival life without the same level of financial investment or logistical dramas! (You can see what I mean in this list of Manchester festivals)
Setting Ground Rules (Without Killing the Vibe)
Setting out clear ground rules ahead of time is really important – it’s far better that everyone knows what the boundaries and expectations are before getting to the festival to save arguing and making decisions on the hop on site. Of course this doesn’t mean that the rules can’t be flexible if you feel they aren’t working or that actually the kids can cope with more independence than you first thought.
Things to consider include:
Meeting points – We agree a time and a meeting point before we split up so that if we struggle with phone network, we’ve already made a plan. “Let’s meet at this food van after this performance” or “If we get split up meet at this place”
Curfews – We always have a defined time to meet – so “As soon as X has finished on the main stage, come back to us”. Perhaps this year that will extend to “Be back at the tent at a specific time” or “Be ready to leave at this gate at a set time” – that depends on which festivals we end up going to and who we are with.
Phone charging and contact – Keeping your phone charged at a festival can be tricky especially as poor network coverage means your battery might drain faster than usual. A decent power bank is really important. As I have mentioned above, we always struggle for phone connection at festivals so those curfews and meeting points become extra important.
What independence looks like – This will vary from family to family and from event to event. As I mentioned earlier, we started off with things like letting them go to the toilet on their own or queue up to order their own food. We also set a food budget and give them a festival spend so they can make their own choices about things like fairground rides or stupid bucket hats from festival stalls. Moving forwards independence might look like planning out their own day in terms of which bands they want to see and meeting us around that, it might look like bringing a friend to hang out with, it might look like camping in a different part of the campsite and generally sorting themselves out whilst knowing we are on site if they need us . . .
Trust & clarity – Independence is something that grows and changes with time – and the more we know we can trust them, the more independence they are allowed. For us trust is built through things like being where they’ve said they will be (eg if you’ve said you’ll be at the main stage, then stay there), sticking to meeting points curfews – if they’re always on time then we know we can let them go for longer. Only drinking what we have bought for them so we can keep an eye on it.
Camping With Teens: What Changes?
Camping at festivals with teens is probably not that much different from camping at a festival with kids – except that they are stronger and more able to help. We are lucky with Ben that he does much of the lifting and carrying with Dave and they do the bulk of the set up and pack down together now!
Things to consider when camping with teens at a festival
Sleeping Arrangements
Bigger tents – bigger bodies equals bigger tents obviously! We’ve had an enormous family tent since we first started camping so this has never really been an issue for us.
Separate sleeping spaces – Ben has had his own smaller tent for a long time now so that he didn’t have to share with the girls. We didn’t used to take this to festivals with us as it was easier to stick them all in the same room but now they are bigger it works well to give him his own space.
Earplugs are essential – camping with teens, with or without kids – earplugs are a must have.
Campsite Location
Close enough to toilets – There’s a fine line between camping close enough to the toilets for those late night toilet trips and not so close that you get disturbed by banging toilet doors all night!
Far enough from late-night noise – We like to camp as close to the car park as possible as it makes setting up camp easier and means that we are less disturbed by late night noise.
What to Pack for Festivals With Teens
To be honest the things you need to take for festivals with teens are pretty much the same as the things you’d pack for a festival with kids. . .
Essentials
Portable chargers – take more than one, make sure they are substantial!
Wet wipes & hand sanitiser – Goes without saying!
Refillable bottles – I don’t need to explain
Warm layers – your teen might be more bothered about how their outfit looks but honestly, when the sun goes down, they’ll be glad of those layers! (Read about how to cope with British weather at festivals here!)
Cash & cards – Most festivals are card only now. I recommend something like Monzo where they can have a festival budget and keep a track of their spending. Make sure they keep an eye on their transactions as there’s always tales of people being double-charged at festivals.
Teen-Specific Extras
Their own small backpack – big enough for their phone, power bank, waterproof jacket, hat and sunglasses – check specific festival guidance on this, typically your bag needs to be smaller than A4 size.
Snacks they’ll actually eat – check festival policies on this one as some events are happy for you to carry snacks into the main arenas, others don’t allow it. If you can take snacks then it’s a great way to save money on festival food and make sure they aren’t hungry!
Glow sticks / lights for visibility – glow sticks for fun, torches for practicality!
Food, Money & Independence
Food and money are a great basis for developing independence at a festival
Budgeting together – setting out clear budgets for food and general spending ahead of time allows them to plan for and keep control of their spending. We usually set a £10 lunch budget and £15 for dinner (though we do usually try to only eat one meal a day on site as it’s such a lot of money!).
Pre-loading cards – A Monzo or Revolut type card that you can pre-load is a great way to make sure that they don’t over spend!
Agreeing daily spend – When it comes to festival spending outside of food, we tend to ask that the kids save up for this themselves though we might set a ride budget for the weekend – eg one ride each, or £10 for rides over the weekend – this sort of thing depends on how flush we are at the time!
Eating separately some of the time – letting your teens go off to get their own food is a great way of building independence. So far this has been go and get your food and bring it back here but I know this coming summer it will be more likely that they will just sort their own food when they feel like it – it’s less important that we all eat at the same time.
In our experience, food and money are where many arguments happen so agreeing ahead of time is key – if they already know they’ve got £10 to send on rides for the weekend or that there isn’t any money for random stall purchases then they are less likely to pester and you won’t find it so hard to say no when you are put on the spot.
Safety Without Hovering
I don’t know about you but the thing I worry about most is keeping my kids safe – and, as they get older, them keeping themselves safe. When it comes to taking my teens to festivals or starting to let them go to festivals on their own, it’s all about keeping them safe whilst not suffocating them – letting them go, but being there in case things go wrong.
Things to consider when it comes to peace of mind for you and your teens are:
Wristbands / ID – when the kids were younger I always had wristbands with my phone number on. This might not be something they would want to wear as teens but it’s worth considering ID (for emergencies not for getting served!)
Location sharing – We use Google Family link to keep an eye on our teens’ locations when we need to do – though again, network coverage can cause difficulties here and might not be so accurate in a festival field or campsite!
Emergency plans – What will you do in an emergency? Having a plan will give you peace of mind.
Talking through scenarios in advance – from where to camp, when to eat, to what if you lose your phone, there’s a problem with your tent, you lose your friends . . . making plans means all of these things would be easier to handle if they do happen.
Letting Go a Little
Taking your teens to festivals is about stepping back, letting them relish their independence and watching their confidence grow. It’s about shared moments and memories – I know our days of festivals as a family are numbered, they’re going to want to go with their friends and girlfriends / boyfriends – but I know that the years we’ve spent taking them to festivals will stand them in good stead and I can’t wait to seem them make their own festival memories now!
You can find more festival content and tips here:
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