Tips for Camping at Festivals with Children

Last Updated on 9 August 2024 by Colette

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Camping at a festival with kids can feel pretty daunting.  We’ve done it quite a few times now so I have pulled together some of our tips for making camping at a festival with children as stress free as possible.

Camping at a festival is quite different to a typical camping weekend and as such I wanted to share our tips for making the most of camping at a festival with kids.

Making the most of camping at a festival with kids

1. Try a day festival first to get a feel for it

The first couple of times we took the kids to a festival, we just did day trips – this is a great way to test the water and see how you feel about festivals with kids before diving right into a full weekend of camping at a festival, especially if you’re not an experienced camper or indeed festival goer. Many festivals will allow you to buy day guest tickets – we’ve even had full weekend tickets and just gone home each night (obviously from a fairly local festival) or you can book a nearby hotel if you want to attend the whole weekend but aren’t quite ready for camping.

2. Try camping out overnight first

Ahead of our first time camping at a festival with children, we took the kids on a couple of more typical weekend camping trips to make sure we were all able to sleep comfortably in the tent and to figure out what kind of camping equipment we needed. Finding out you haven’t got the right kit or aren’t warm enough during the night isn’t ideal when you’re already invested in a full weekend of festival fun!

3. Don’t over pack

All those things you normally take camping with you for comfort? You’re going to have to carry a long way at a festival so consider what you might be able to do without.  For example we don’t take all our cooking things when we’re camping at a festival, just the things we need to make a brew and a butty for breakfast. (A festival trolley is your friend when it comes to moving everything to the campsite.) This post about what to take to a festival should be helpful!

4. Pack outfits in plastic bags within your main bag

Packing whole outfits separately in plastic bags helps them to stay dry and also makes it easier to find outfits.  There is nothing worse than spending all day cold and wet at a festival to then find you haven’t got something warm and dry to get dressed into at the end of the day!

I pack full outfits into carrier bags and the label them up with which day they are for. (You can read more tips on what to wear for festivals here)

5. You will need head torches

We have enough head torches for one each and a couple of spares.  They are mainly used for getting back to our tent at the end of the day or out to the toilet in the middle of the night!

6. Choose your pitch carefully

The earlier you get to the festival site, the more choice of pitch you will have – this is especially important if you’ve got a large family tent or if you want to camp with friends.  We made this mistake at YNot Festival last year and when we arrived on site the family campsite was already pretty rammed, had we arrived much later I think we’d have really struggled to pitch our very large tent!

7. Don’t camp too near the toilets

Don’t camp too near the toilets – not only will it be busy and smell but people always let the toilet doors bang so this will really disturb you at night!  You don’t want to pitch your tent on the edge of a path through the campsite either – whilst it might seem convenient, you’re actually just going to suffer from high traffic of festival goers walking past (or perhaps falling onto!) your tent at all times of day and night.

8. Camp near the car park

When we were younger and going to festivals in our early twenties, we wanted to camp as near to the main festival site as possible.  Fifteen years later, we’ve learned to camp nearer the car park!  It’s much easier to have a slightly longer walk into the festival than it is to drag all your kit across two fields.  You’ll also find that campsites nearer the main festival entrance are likely to be rowdier, busier and generally louder which nobody needs when their trying to get their kids to sleep at night!

9. Think about how you will mark out your tent

Consider how you will mark out your tent – you’re going to need to find it again and all tents look the same once they’re tightly packed into a festival site!  Lots of people like to use big flags for this – we tend to just look for landmarks nearby eg a fish on a stick, a big rainbow flag – anything which will help you to recognise the route back to your tent! You’ll be surprised how quickly you know where your tent is.

10. Try to mark out your territory

If you haven’t camped at a festival before, you might be surprised at how packed out the campsites can be – they are not usually marked out in pitches, it’s just a case of find a space you like, that is big enough for your tent and cracking on with it. At Y Not Festival our tent was pretty much touching the tent of our neighbours who arrived and started pitching shortly after us – we honestly thought there wasn’t going to be room to get our tent up and we certainly couldn’t get our festival trolley out again over all the criss-crossing guy ropes! If you can, consider using a wind break or gazebo to try and mark a bit of space near your tent – especially if you are camping at a festival with friends and want to have space near each other!

11. Don’t leave anything of value in your tent for obvious reasons

I know it’s tempting to have the kids’ tablets there to keep them entertained first thing in the morning or when you are back at the tent for a bit of chill time but there are obvious risks there so if you can, leave the tech at home!

12. Campfires and BBQs are generally not allowed at festival campsites

Campfires and BBQs are generally not allowed at festival campsites as the risk of fire is just far too great (remember I mentioned how closely packed those tents are!)  You will find that some festivals allow you to have a stove / BBQ as long as it is raised off the ground – we generally use this for making a brew and a bacon butty in the morning or a hot drink to warm us up at bedtime. 

13. Freeze everything you can

As I’ve mentioned, we don’t tend to take a lot of food to festivals with us – however, what we do take, we try to freeze.  Frozen bacon, milk and Capri Sun are all great staples in your cool box and will help to keep everything else (the beer!) cool for a night or two. They are generally defrosted by the time you come to use them.

14. Ear plugs and an eye mask will be your best friend

Camping at a festival is noisy; there’s a lot of people and everyone is in the party spirit.  Ear plugs will save you!  (We are lucky that our kids are really good sleepers so are rarely bothered by the noise – but keeping them up nice and late helps too!)

15. Consider when you will leave the festival

We tend to choose not to stay the last night at a festival, packing up the car first thing on Sunday morning before heading back into the festival and leaving when we are ready on Sunday night – you will usually find that less people are trying to leave at this point.  If you are going to leave the festival on the Monday morning, just be prepared for a lot of traffic and a long wait in a queue as everyone tries to leave the site at the same time.

Check out our Guide to Festivals here for more festival based content!

Why not check out these posts next:

Family Friendly Festivals in 2024

Surviving a festival with kids!

Money saving tips for festivals

If you’re taking toddlers to festivals, Hannah has some great tips.

Here are some more tips and tricks that would make your camping adventure just a little bit easier.

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