How to survive a family festival – Top tips from Deer Shed 
Here at GO Outdoors we just love the festival season. Everyone is in a great mood and they’re on their way to enjoy a day or weekend full of their favourite activities, and in the case of family-friendly festivals like the Deer Shed Festival it’s a chance to enjoy all of your favourite things with your favourite people.
Family-friendly festivals are a chance to spend some time together as a family, but whether you’re going for a day or a weekend it’s important that you take all of the essentials to make the most of the event. Whether it’s listening to music or watching live acts you need to ensure that your car is packed up with the kind of things you’ll all need to be prepared for whatever the day (and the British weather has in store).
To help you out we’ve teamed up with the guys from the Deer Shed Festival to bring you a list of the top 10 essential items for a successful family-friendly festival:
- Earplugs/ear defenders: protect the kids’ hearing! Quality music at festivals can really blow you away, but that doesn’t mean it has to blow your ear drums.
- Trailer/wheelbarrow: to easily transport food, drink and luggage on the way into the festival; and to easily transport tired tots on the way home.
- Eye mask: People always pack warm layers in anticipation of chilly British summer nights, but often forget that the sun blazing through a thin tent wall can cause quite a rude awakening at daybreak. You need your beauty sleep, after all.
- Torch: a vital accessory for midnight toilet visits.
- Sunglasses & Sunscreen: it’s great to soak up the sun but make sure that you protect your skin and eyes.
- Wet wipes, hand sanitizer, anti-bite cream and insect repellent: people sometimes forget about the presence of pesky bugs at festivals so keep them at bay with a handy spray or treat any bites as soon as you can. Wet wipes and hand sanitizers are always good for a quick clean-up before handling food or when you get mucky on the campsite.
- Cooler box for food and drinks: keep your snacks and drinks fresh and cool.
- Gas stove: Providing it adheres to event restrictions (cylinders at the Deer Shed Festival, for example, must be less than 2.7kg in gas weight) then you can whip up some breakfast or a hot meal in the evening. Check your chosen festival website for details before you pack the car.
- Sling: For carrying the really little ones around so you can remain hands free.
- Poncho / anorak and wellies: Just in case, obviously! Every year we pray for no rain. Sometimes our prayers are answered, sometimes they’re not.
