Level Up Your Festi-Game With These 5 Pro Tips & Hacks
Ay, GSproutGang! Festival season is upon us and, you know, we’re pros out here both in the booth and on-lot! We want to make sure you’re prepared for a killer season too and have everything you need to absolutely slay out there! Whether you’re a first-time festival-goer or level-ten wook wrangler, here are five pro-tips with some of our favorite festi-items and products to make sure you’re best prepared for traveling, camping, and festing!
1. Stay Cool & Hydrated with a Solid Cooler and Frozen Waterbottles!
There is nothing more refreshing after setting up your tent in the hot sun than a long drink of cold, cold water, and in order to make this happen, you’re going to need a really great cooler! This durable, frozen container is not just a luxury, but an essential part of your campsite, especially if you plan to be away for multiple days, store perishable food, or enjoy cold beverages with the homies. We recommend Yeti coolers which come in a range of sizes, styles, colors, and are some of the best products in the game. Might we suggest a hard cooler with wheels? Or a personal cooler backpack for on-the-go? Regardless of the size or style, we recommend entering the fest with your cooler pre-filled with ice and chilled items to maximize your frozen potential while waiting in line, setting up your site, and staying cool all weekend long, especially during the hottest festivals. Try a Grassroots Koozie to keep your drinks cool, too!
Pro tip: Pre-freezing water bottles to line your cooler will not only help keep your cooler colder for longer, but also ensure your site is prepared to hydrate with access to clean water all weekend long!
2. Mask Up: Not for COVID, but Health, Fashion, and Safety!
You know how you can spot the old, season fest-head? It’s probably the one who has a bandana around their neck as they cross a dusty field or who pulls up a convertible face buff as a golf cart flies by stirring up a cloud of dirt. Hear me out: always pack at least one face mask, face buff, or bandana, if not more! Face coverings protect your airway from the dust, sand, dirt, wood, smoke, ash, and grime in hot, dry climates and have been crucial for us at events such as Lost Lands, Electric Forest, Bonnaroo, and Sonic Bloom.
While some will tell you that Face coverings are a trendy, fashionable opportunity to show off art and style, or a protective tool to conceal your identity, or a part of health consciousness COVID left in it’s wake, we say this: breathing in the elements day after day after day crushes your immune system and we think you owe it to yourself to feel (and look!) your festi-best! We also have some killer sunglasses, brimmed hats, and goggles which are perfect for keeping your eyes protected out there!
Pro tip: Hot and sweaty? Drench your face covering in ice cold water before returning it to your head, face, or neck! It’ll instantly cool you down and help keep it clean.
3. Pack back-up socks, shoes, boots, warm clothes and rain-gear in a solid, safe place!
Picture this: you’re running back to your campsite in a torrential downpour after Mainstage was evacuated. Your jeans? Wet. Your shoes? Wet. Your socks? Wet. The entire grounds is now a foot-deep puddle of mud and you can’t find anything in your tent since it either blew away or floated away. You’re about to start crying (everything’s already wet, right?) when your rave-bae appears with the car keys (which were securely clipped onto their belt loops)! They put down a trash bag across the car seat for your muddy shoes and wet clothes, and throw the heat on to help dry your hair.
They hand you a clean, dry towel, followed by a pair of dry socks, warm sweats, and clean shirt that were magically stowed away under the seat, as if they’d known this was going to happen! Just as you tie off the bag of stinky, wet clothes, they tell you they got the text that the festival grounds have been reopened and your favorite artist is about to go on. They reach behind your seat and hand you a pair of tall rain boots and a compact, packable waterproof (not water-resistant!) rain jacket. You compose yourself and exit the vehicle. Right away, you have mud up to your calves on the boots, but your feet are warm and dry. The light rain doesn’t bother you since it’s beading on your rain jacket and rolling right off. You’re warm, dry, fresh, clean, loved, and most importantly, learned a valuable lesson about being prepared for the worst. Now go enjoy your show! This wook-cess story is brought to you by Grassroots accessories & home goods.
Pro tip: Keep an emergency bag in your car with an extra set of everything, including underwear, clothes, shoes, blanket, and extra trash-bags for all the wet and muddy stuff! Don’t have car? Use tightly sealed bins in your tent, kept away from the side walls. Forgot something? Stop by the Grassroots booth to get new clothes and accessories on-site: we’ve got just about everything you could possibly need!
4. Zipper, Seal, Stow, and Secure All Personal Items Before Your Trip!
This may seem like a given, but the amount of lost phones, wallets, keys, and IDs we’ve found (or lost) over the years is a testament to how important this rule is. Whether you’re zippering up your ID or cash, stashing your car key, or packing your rolling tray, yoga mat, blanket, or phone, packing properly and staying organized will help make sure your trip goes as smoothly as that first campsite bong rip. Our friends at DimeBags have mastered hemp-based bags which include wallets, backpacks, duffles, purses, and more! They also have interchangeable patches, smell-proof collections, lockable devices, and protective cases, too.
We care about your hats and highly recommend these structured hat-carrying cases to keep your lids clean and protected. Lanyards and heavy-duty carabiners are a great way to connect everything too: create a detachable system that will keep your personal items together and can be built-out or deconstructed for convenience. Our sunglasses and cases and lighters have hooks just for this reason!
Pro tip: Keep all valuables locked in your car. Store keys in one spot on your body or at the campsite. Keep your phone in a zippered pocket or pouch. Go cashless & cardless with your phone, or put your card and cash in a ziploc in your shoe! Take only what you need with you.
5. You’ve Got The Power! Or Do You?
You don’t have to rough it out there! We’ve mastered the art of living luxuriously while festing by mastering these three items, sometimes combined: a flashlight, a portable charger, and a power inverter! Having a light to help fumble back to your campsite or safely use the portajohn in the middle of the night is a luxury we all deserve: get yourself a keychain light to clip-and-carry, a mini-flashlight for your tent or stash pockets, a few small lanterns to keep your campsite lit (such as this super dope camping fan lantern!). Next on our list of luxury necessities: power. Sure. you could survive the weekend without your phone, but who wants to? Get yourself a portable charger (we suggest this solar-charging/LED flashlight powerhouse or this one with the built-in radio to keep in your tent or at your campsite, and this smaller Anker or credit-card sized one for on-the-go!). The next level power source is for recharging your chargers and much more: you’ll need a car or lighter socket to use a power inverter, but it’s a game-changer that we won’t go without! You can plug in air-mattresses, pumps, fans, heaters, charging cables or chargers, and recharge your portables too.
Pro tip: Another way to light up your night and stay charged? Get an LED charging cable! They always seem to go missing, so having an extra on hand that’s easily identifiable and doubles as a lightsource is pretty freaking cool! Plus, everyone will know you’re a pro when you’re raging at the main stage with your fully-charged iPhone, glowing cable, and portable mini-charger in hand. We also recommend saving the festival’s schedule as your phone’s lock screen so you can save some battery when you check it every hour ;P Having a laminated print out on your person is cool too.