Festival season has been upon us for a while, and it seems that no matter how much experience we have and events we have attended, there is always that one last thing that can elevate the weekend. Usually we consider the Summer to be festival season but nowadays, festivals are happening every month of the year! We still have plenty to rage at, like Hard Summer, Outside Lands, Elements, Secret Dreams, and more. So check out our must haves for any festival, weekender experience, or one day events.
At the Stage
Camelback
You’re going to be raging to the heater on the dance floor and those $20 beers aren’t going to cut it. Water is life and having a camelback is an easy solution. Keep your hands free so you can dance those fingers to the beat and last the whole day and the weekend. There are tons of camelbacks to choose from, with rave companies like VIBEDRATION and SOJOURNER.
Kandi and Stickers
Trading kandi is one of the staples of rave culture. We forge new friendships, define a good neighborhood in the crowd, and just love making each other smile. Feel free to bring cooler stickers for an even more unique trade off. You never know, some people may throw you a free drink or two if you have a killer sticker collection.
Ear plugs! Ear plugs! Ear plugs!
This is pretty self explanatory. Ringing ears are not the vibe, so invest in some decent ear plugs like from Eargasm or Vibes High Fidelity. Pro tip, vendors at some festivals may carry some for you to buy in case your forget or lose them and there usually are free foam ear plugs at the med tent. Protect your ears so you can keep falling in love with every drop and melody blasting from those main stage speakers.
Any Weather
Rain Boots or Shoe Covers
We have all dealt with mud pits that damn near take our shoes along with them. If you have some new sneakers you want to show off, it’s smart to consider bring some kind of shoe cover to preserve them. If you’re camping or the weather predictions are rain, rain, and guess what more rain, then getting some rain boots are a must. Besides, you can usually find a cute little pair that can match your rave outfit like these cute little rainbow rain boots!
Bucket Hat
One, these are back in style like the rest of the 90’s and early aughts and two, keep your eyes under some decent shade. No one wants to see sun spots all day and a bucket hat can be the addition to complete any festival outfit you have planned. A ton of artists are starting to roll these out for merch like Seven Lions, Chris Lake, LSDream or you can always shop around for something a little more specific to your planned look.
Poncho
Circling back to unpredictable weather, ponchos are great to preserve that top you bought for way too much money from that one place online that would be impossible to replace. Also who wants to go home shivering, soaking wet? That ain’t it.
Back at Camp
Tall Tents
For some of us, it’s RV or hotel. But if you can snag a decent tent, it can improve your camping experience and may even win you over (outside of saving some extra cash). Having a tall tent that you can stand up in are something to really invest in, as this can get you through any festival, gives you lots of head room, which is great for when you need to change or just get out of the tent in general. We can attest to basically rolling out of our tent like a barrel because who is coordinated anymore? Especially after a couple night caps with your neighbors.
Water Keg
Having a designated water keg for camp or one that is great to host a large batch of cocktails is something that really elevate your camping experience. This Backtap Keg can do both and it comes with backpack straps so you can bop around to other camp sites or sound camps for those late night parties. Check out these options from Custom Branding, where you can add your own custom vinyl decal design to rep your rave fam in style!
Life Saving/Ice Saving Cooler
The cooler is the lifeblood of the campsite. It’s the watering hole, the table, the keeper of the beer and the snacks, and is absolutely necessary. Investing in a cooler that will retain your ice for days and save you from the dreaded warm beer or vodka is worth every single penny. Plus you can slap some stickers on that bad boy or a personal custom design so you can easily find discern which campsite is yours when stumbling back from stages.
Bluetooth Speaker
The music may stop at the stages but you can start and end the party at camp. There are tons of bluetooth speakers out there to match each rave fam’s vibe, whether you’re a chill Lane 8 wind down at sunrise group or a wake up and house party at noon group. As always, be mindful of your neighbors, and if they’re digging the tunes, invite them to join! We recommend the Wonderboom, which comes in tons of colors, has a great all around sound, and is IPX7 Waterproof.
These are just a few recommendations that not everyone always considers when packing for their next event. When it comes to raving, we want it to be better than the last. Music festivals are the little bubbles of perfection that let us escape into pure euphoria. Reality slips away for a while and we can just dance with our friends and experience the best that life has to offer.
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