My favorite season is right around the corner…music festival season. It’s a time where you can feel summer quickly approaching, a time to stalk all of the major celebrity’s festival fashion or a time when you’re preparing for your very own festival of choice. As a music festival junkie: I’ve traveled from state to state attending Firefly (Dover, Delaware), Made in America (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Lollapalooza (Chicago, Illinois). This upcoming season I’m preparing for Firefly yet again, Governors Ball (Randall’s Island, New York) and Boston Calling (Cambridge, Massachusetts). To me, festivals are so enlightening — a time to spend a long weekend with good friends/family, hearing great music throughout the day, expanding music and style horizons, and my absolute favorite part — meeting new people that share the same love for whichever environment we’re in. Whether you’re a first-time festival goer, switching up which festival you’re attending or just interested in knowing how to prepare, here’s the ultimate music festival preparation guide.
Outfits. Obviously, the most important thing to prepare for. I start thinking about festival outfits months in advance, usually picking up pieces as I see something that catches my eye. Keep an eye out for what’s trending, what stays pretty consistent as a basic outfit necessity and the sales that come with that. My outfit advice is, keep in mind where in the crowd you’ll be whether you want to chill in the back and just enjoy the sound or crammed front row for hours to get a good spot. For me, that’s what determines my day-to-day outfits. Rompers, cute soft shorts paired with a fun off the shoulder top or tank, or a flowy dress are good go-to’s that will always be both cute comfy. As for shoes, can’t go wrong with a good pair of converse or if a nice boot that you don’t mind if it gets stepped on or dusty (believe me, they will).
Hydrate, Hydrate, HYDRATE. The most important thing you can possibly bring to a music festival is a reusable water bottle. Standing all day long in the heat and moving around from stage to stage, it is so important to have plenty of water in your system. Now, pretty much every festival has “Camelbak” sponsored water fill-up stations that you can refill your bottles as much as you need to with no cost. Saving the environment with less use of plastic bottles and saving your wallets, keeping you from having to pay a ridiculous over-priced amount of money for a bottle of water.
Phone Chargers. You are going to use up a ridiculous amount of battery taking tons of pictures around the festival grounds and you don’t want to miss a single memory. Along with the water fill-up stations, there will also always be multiple charging stations. Some cost money if you don’t bring your own cords, so keep them in your bag just to be safe.
Backpack or Medium sized cross-body. My festival go-to is my beat down, red fringe, Vans cross body purse or a white and green geometric backpack I got from Urban Outfitters on sale. Both are cute and the perfect size to keep all of my necessities in. These are also bags that if it they get a little dirty I won’t mind. Make sure you keep it on you at all times and keep it zipped up!
Sunglasses. Can’t forget a nice pair of sunglasses. They’ll add to your outfit and also allow you to look cute and not squinty in whatever picture you take during the day. However, I do not trust myself taking my Ray-Bans (or any other expensive designer you may own) to a festival because I lose absolutely everything so my recommendation is to hit up Forever 21 (or your store of choice) and grab a stylish pair of glasses that will be no more than $5! My Forever 21 sunnies have become my go-to adventure glasses, and just in case I ever lose them at least they were cheap.
Cash. Although now that technology is advancing, sometimes places can still be weird about taking card. I always take cash instead of my card so I a) don’t lose it and b) can track the amount of money being spent by taking a certain amount out before heading over to the festival. Budget friendly and avoiding any unfortunate scenarios.
Sources: 1, All other photos taken by Aja Moore