With my third Glastonbury and fifth festival just around the corner, I thought I’d share my must-haves and top tips to prep for festival season. As well as the usual festival essentials like a camping chair, mirror, baby wipes, torch… I’ve added a few extra things you might not have thought of.
Before you go…
1. Do your nails
Preferably gel or shellac so it’ll last you with no hassle for the full weekend. Nobody wants to be seeing all the grime under their nails when they’ve just put their tent up on day one. Never mind after 6 days!
2. Exfoliate
Glasto is the first time I’ll be getting my legs out properly this year – so I’m making sure they’re on their way to glowing with regular body scrubbing and moisturising. I’ve also added a little gradual tan moisturiser to my daily routine ready to whip my legs out on Wednesday!
3. Take a long, hot bath
I’m pretty sure there are only two reactions when you tell anyone you’re going to a festival: a. Wow, so jealous – I’d love to go, and b. You mean you’re not washing for a week?
This tip is for the night before. Get all your stuff packed up (as much as you can do), and then hop into the bath. With bubbles and bath salts.
This will be the last time you really get to enjoy that clean feeling for a while. The next morning you’ll be lugging all your earthly belongings through fields in your wellies, and it’s going to get hot – trust me! Take some time for yourself in the bath before you head out for the weekend (and then schedule one in on your return!).
Things to take…
4. Dry Shampoo
Okay – this one might be an obvious festival essential, but don’t forget it! I’m lucky in that I usually wash my hair every 3 days, but after that I’ll 100% be needing this! I’ve tried non-batiste dry shampoos and they just don’t work for me! That being said, the new invisible batiste dry shampoo is a no-go for me too. Trying to use a sample of it one morning led to me running to the nearest Boots on my way to work to fix it with the normal one. Not impressed Batiste!
5. Hair bobbles
If you’ve spent 6 days at a festival before, you’ll know dry shampoo can only help you so much. There comes a time when you’ve either gotta go communal and wash it (this is not me), or tie it up and not touch it until you get home (this is me). Hair bobbles, clips & kirby grips become life savers in this situation. Perhaps some glitter will distract?
6. Hydrating moisturiser
As recommended in Caroline Hiron’s festival cheatsheet, I’ll be using the Pixi H20 Skindrink. I already had this on hand after a previous Pixi splurge, but seeing as my regular moisturiser is in a glass tub – I’ll be using this one AM & PM.
7. Contact Lenses
If you’re as short-sighted as me (hello, fellow 5.50ers!), you’ll be sick of people holding up their fingers at you and asking how many there are. But that isn’t really the point of this post. I use daily contact lenses, but the thought of putting my contact lenses in without properly washing my hands makes me pretty anxious.
Every year, I ask my opticians for a pair of lenses I can leave in for the duration of the festival. This eliminates any chance of germs getting into my eye, and solves the issues of finding my glasses at 3am if I need to. I also make sure I have my usual dry eye drops to keep my eyes hydrated. Worth asking your optician about – this works for me, but obviously, every pair of eyes is different!
8. Flip Flops
You can thank me later. Putting on wellies every time you leave your tent – if only to walk across the campsite will get pretty tiring pretty quickly. After a day in wellies, it’s also an incredible feeling to free your toes – just wait.
I am partial to my Havaianas, but for festivals or camping, I pick the cheapest pair I have and chuck them in. Primark sell them for only £2 and their luminous colour means they’re pretty hard to lose. Just don’t wear them to the toilets…
9. The Backpack
Within your massive camping rucksack, or whatever you choose to carry everything in – you’ll 100% need a mini rucksack or day bag that holds the equivalent of Mary Poppin’s handbag, or Hermione’s magic bag. I made a big mistake on my first year, taking a teeny tiny bag, but prepared myself for my second Glasto with this little bambino.
The mini Fjallraven Kanken is literally the perfect festival bag. It comes in a million different colours and carries everything. It’s pretty damn durable too – believe me, I stuffed plenty of Strongbow in there last time around, as well as my toilet tissues, hand sanitiser, polaroid camera…the list goes on.
10. Sun Cream
Sun cream. Something I have a biiig post coming up on. Having been the kinda gal who loves a tan since a very young age – fun fact: I was mistaken for Spanish at age 4 – I’m attempting some damage control now before I turn into a Mulberry handbag in later life.
For the last year or so, I’ve used SPF on my face everyday without fail – ranging from 15 to 50 depending on the weather. I usually leave festivals feeling pretty weathered, so this year I’m stepping up the SPF game and will be taking this Clarins UV+ SPF 50 to apply below my foundation in a morning, and then a nifty SPF spray for top ups when the sun is bursting through the clouds every day (wishful thinking, perhaps?).
11. Hand Sanitiser
Yes I know I said 10 things, but this is essential. It needs no explanation.
I’ve also bought a few new skincare minis for my festival adventure, in the hope of keeping up a vaguely decent cleansing routine – but I’ll be sharing whether these have worked (or not) post-Glastonbury.
Any top tips I’ve missed? I’ve still got some time for last minute additions! Don’t forget the glitter either! (Oops, is that 12 things?)
C x
*All thoughts on here are my own this post is 100% not sponsored.
