The packing list we always follow — and three things you must have with you

After I don’t know how many festivals but especially 3 years in a row at festivals abroad, you learn a lot. You realize how insanely hard it is to drag all the kilos you wouldn’t have had to drag on all the way from a muddy parking lot at Nova Rock away to Green Camp.

After a lot of discussions, a lot of festivals and a lot of fuss, we have compiled what we think is the kind of perfect packing list.

We divide our packing list into different parts, but there will be a summary a little further down as well. If you want to skip all the details, you can jump straight down to the ‘big packing list’

Tent and sleep

First of all – buy a good tent. No, you don’t have to spend several thousand, but a festival with a 25 euro tent from some shitty company can really only end in two ways. Either it rains and then you will get wet and not just you, all the things you have with you will get wet. If you’re lucky enough to avoid rain, it’s probably sunshine and then you’ll wake up in a sauna – anyway you’ll wake up wet.

So okay, you’ve bought a good tent now – nice! The tent is the base, but it is the air mattress that determines whether you wake up as a person or as a trampled old shoe. What really works is a good inflatable air mattress. You come up from the ground and you actually sleep just fine, even if, for example, it would be a bit damp on the ground.

Keep in mind that your packing and your things take up space and that a four-man tent is never a four-man tent.

• Tent that holds at least one person more than you actually are.
• Sleeping mat or air mattress. If you have room in the pack, we really recommend an air mattress!
• Earplugs. Buy those recommended for concerts — they let conversations through but dampen 21 dB – great when you’re going to sleep too.
• Sleeping mask. The sun rises early and tents are not dark
• Tarpaulin – put over the tent – it dampens most things, including sunlight. Tarpaulin means cooler and darker tent!
• Extra tent pegs! And not standard pegs like this that you get with cheap tents, but real tent pegs that don’t break or bend because there happens to be a poor stone right where you want to hammer down.
• Rubber sledgehammer – sounds unnecessary but you are quite grateful when you can knock down the sticks,

Body — you need more than alcohol

The festival body can withstand more than you think, but no more than you can tolerate. Sunscreen is not optional. Three liters of water a day is not excessive. And plasters — real, water-resistant plasters — save feet, heels, fingers and egos daily.

Our most important things about the body

• Sunscreen – goes without saying
• Resorb – worth its weight in gold, the body needs fluid and you will not drink enough water.

Three Things You Should Really Pack Down

After all the festivals, all the trips, we have learned that there are three things that you must never forget

1. Powerbanks. It’s actually completely useless to stand in the middle of a concert sea and realize that the phone is dying and you don’t have a way to actually find your friends – rather too many power banks than too few!
2. Tape. Silver tape, electrical tape, duct tape — choose for yourself. It solves broken shoes, leaking tents, glasses, cups and friendships. Everything can be fixed with silver tape and if it can’t be fixed with silver tape, then it’s really broken.
3. Toilet paper. It will probably end when you sit on the bajama. Bring, take two rolls, take three, take a whole ball if you can.

‘If you haven’t brought at least one thing you think is superfluous, you’ve packed too little.’

Crisis material — this is the list in the list

When it starts to rain on day three, when someone slips in the mud, when the tent is torn down by a thunderstorm — then you don’t want to stand without this:

• Rain poncho per person. Not an umbrella, not a thin rain garment — real poncho that covers the backpack.
• Garbage bag. Lots of people. to rubbish, to wet clothes, to clean clothes, to rubbish, to fix the tent with..
• First aid kits: plasters, alvedon, allergy tablets, compresses, wound washing, safety pin.
• Small flashlight or headlamp. The phone’s light works until the battery runs out. That’s when you need it.

Clothes

• T-shirts 1 per day + 2 extra
• Shorts 2
• Hoodie 1–2
• Light jacket / raincoat –
• Soft bags / comfortable pants –
• Jeans – two pairs
• Dress / party outfit
• Sleeping shirt
• Underwear 1/day + 2 extra
• Socks 1/day + 3 extra

Shoes

• Comfortable shoes – shoes you can sacrifice
• Rubber boots – I don’t care if the weather forecast says brilliant sunshine, if you don’t have rubber boots with you, it will rain.
• Flip flops or sandals

Camping

• Tent
• Mattress / air mattress
• Sheets / sleeping bag
• Pillow
• Camping chairs
• Party tent
• Tarpaulin
• Parasol
• Tent pegs

Other

• Camping flag
• Sledgehammer
• Pump for the air mattress
• Garbage bags
• Silver tape

Power and other things

• Powerbanks – at least two
• Charger
• Headlamp or flashlight
• Speaker

Food

• Snacks
• Instant coffee or iced coffee (depends on whether you can heat water or not)
• Canned goods – Ravioli is good shit and can be eaten cold
• Soft cheese and toppings
• Bread
• Resorb
• Water
• Spirits
• Beer
• Something to mix the booze with
• Some lemons
• Fruits and other things that keep for a while in the heat

Kitchen stuff

• Glass
• Butter knife
• Cutlery
• Mugs
• Shot glass
• Can opener
• Scissors
• Knife
• Straw

Hygiene

• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Shampoo (travel format)
• Dry shampoo
• Skin cream / sun protection
• Deowipes
• Wet wipes
• Toilet paper
• Bindings & tampons
• Hair clips / rubber bands
• Makeup wipes
• Lens stuff
• Earplugs
• Medicine box
• Liquid replacement

Other important

• Again, tape!
• Wallet
• Ticket
• Pencils
• Sunglasses
• Towels

How we do in the app

This entire list is available as a template in FestivalMate under Purchasing → Personal.

Please send us your own add-ons at hello@festivalmate.se.

See you out in the mud. Or the sunshine?