Festival Essentials (Kinda): Top 21 Camping Festival must haves!

Lis­ten up you degen­er­ates. You’re prob­a­bly all going through LOTA (Lack of Tomor­row­World Anx­i­ety) as your Time­hop and Face­book Mem­o­ries blasts you with incred­i­ble moments from the years pri­or; so to calm the storm of feels, our team is at it again with some hard­core facts that every fes­ti-head MUST know. Kin­da.

No mat­ter how many you’ve been too, each camp­ing fes­ti­val will help refine your skills & plans for the next one. Whether it’s how to sur­vive with even less, how to com­mu­ni­cate with wooks, or who to bribe at secu­ri­ty (See a walkie talkie? Yah…not them). But for many, who’ve nev­er had the bliss­ful joy of wak­ing up to morn­ing beers & fes­ti­val chaffing, EDM Day­care brings you a com­pi­la­tion of the Top 21 things you’ll need at your next camp­ing fes­ti­val!

1. Baby Wipes

   • Short & sim­ple. Wipes save lives & time. Whether if it’s for your pri­vates or your pits, one pack­age of the­se bad boys and you’re set for a week­end. Festival show­ers are expen­sive and as a great meme once said “Aint’ nobody got time for that”.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Per­son­al­ly, I buy one super box at Cost­co, and it’ll last me all year long. Fes­ti­vals + my duties at home.
   • LINK to pur­chase

2. Fanny Pack

   • Fan­ny Packs are more than a fash­ion acces­so­ry. They’re the kan­ga­roo pouch of func­tion­ing degen­er­ates. Keep your mon­ey, phone, con­doms, or even your pop tarts total­ly safe! Stashed tight to your body, you’re drunk twin that los­es stuff won’t even have a chance to drop every­thing.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Raver Swag has a funky col­lec­tion of Fan­ny Packs for every type of raver. If you’re groovy, fluffy, or just like to shine, you’ll find a Fan­ny just for you. And they’re less than a nor­mal fes­ti­val mixed drink. (Yah, i’m glar­ing at you, every fes­ti­val bar ever)
   • LINK to pur­chase

3. Battery Pack

   • It’s 2016 & even girlfriend’s cat has a smart­phone. Just kid­ding. I don’t have a girl­friend. Point is. You’re going to want to have your phone pow­ered up in case you want to locate your friends, self­ies of your eyes being saucer plates, or, the occa­sion­al emer­gen­cy. 
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — The Anker brand has proved to be the absolute best so far. Per­son­al­ly, I trav­el a week at a time, and get away with two of the­se bad boys, NEVER hav­ing to teth­er myself to a wall. ALSO, it has a bright light and 2 USB ports for a friend.
   • LINK to Pur­chase

4. Sunglasses

   • Don’t let the sun blind you from the beau­ty & booty that your next fes­ti­val will be bless­ing you with. Don’t bring those $9000 Ray Bans, because more than like­ly, you’ll break or lose them. Grab some cheap, fresh ones off ebay and you won’t have to wor­ry. Also, when you bring 5 pairs and some­one says “Dope shades!”, you can gift them & spread a smile with­out break­ing bank.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — This eBay sell­er has shades for “the low low” that are actu­al­ly super fresh. I buy $6–8 shades by the hand­ful here & I get them 2–3 days lat­er!
   • LINK to Pur­chase

5. Pedialyte

   • The anti-hang­over juice of the gods. One large bot­tle of this bless­ing will help your camp­site out like you can’t imag­ine. A few mouth­fuls replen­ish­es you with gaht damn every­thing you exhaust­ed whilst danc­ing all day/night. Elec­trolytes and vit­a­mins for days. Get a bot­tle or two, and thank EDM Day­care lat­er.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Sold pret­ty much every­where, I nor­mal­ly go to the local Wal­mart to make sure it’s in stock.
   • LINK to Pur­chase

6. Body Powder

   • Don’t over­look this. Male. Female. Skin­ny. Fat. Doesn’t mat­ter. Fric­tion is not fun for any­one and can destroy a week­end depend­ing on how bad the chaffing is. A small bot­tle of this will be the sav­ing grace for some­one who just start­ed feel­ing the burn, or for those smart folk that apply before the par­ty starts.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Per­son­al­ly, I use Mon­key Butt, but it seems like the gen­er­al fes­ti­val com­mu­ni­ty high­ly rec­om­mends Gold Bond. Both refresh­ing­ly cool & sooth­ing, while killing all fric­tion, Gold Bond is always a good choice!
   • LINK to Pur­chase

7. Champagne

   • Many would argue this isn’t essen­tial. Those many. Are bad peo­ple and prob­a­bly are un-patri­otic. Cham­pag­ne is as much of a fes­ti­val essen­tial as is a tent. If you need any more con­vinc­ing, check out our log­ic HERE. (Seri­ous­ly read this, it’s my favorite arti­cle to date)
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy – There’s only one clas­sic that cater’s to both your taste bud’s and your wal­let. Andre “Extra Dry”. Don’t you dare try any oth­er. I rec­om­mend going to a Total Wine & Liquor, as they sell the­se for $4.97. In col­lege, i’d buy the­se pup­pies by the case.
   • LINK to Pur­chase

8. Bluetooth Speaker w/ Mic

   • Most of us read­ing this, EAT|SLEEP|WALK|TALK music. So at a camp­ing fes­ti­val, you’ll prob­a­bly want to do that from sun up to sun down. A bat­tery pow­ered speak­er that hooks up via Blue­tooth will be the fuel behind everyone’s vibes. No bet­ter way to pump up before head­ing into the fes­ti­val or to cool down after the head­lin­ers, than with more music!
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Using the­se since 2010, I can attest the­se bad boys are the way to go. Absolute­ly, it’s large. But they’re only 20 lbs and rage ALL week­end long with a 75 hour bat­tery life. Also, the sound qual­i­ty is PERFECT to bring togeth­er a few camps and make a par­ty hap­pen.
   • LINK to Pur­chase

9. Canopy

   • Once again. The sun is a mean, relent­less force which you should nev­er try to chal­lenge head on. So, get your­self a canopy or two per camp­site, and bask in the shade while the ear­ly morn­ing sun heats up. Also sav­ing you from oth­er ele­ments like rain & bad vibes, this is an absolute must for extend­ed stay fes­ti­vals.
   • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — I sug­gest going to your local sport­ing goods store that hasn’t closed down in bank­rupt­cy, and find­ing the best canopy per your siz­ing needs.

10. Sleeping Bag

    • A much need­ed ameni­ty. Com­fort. Warmth. Clas­sic.
      There’s no need to explain this one.
    • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — Wal­mart always has a ter­ri­fic selec­tion. Make sure to check the weath­er that week­end cause each bag is rat­ed for dif­fer­ent tem­per­a­tures! Always go with some­thing  a tad warmer. You can always take lay­ers off, but you can’t always put more on.
    • LINK to Pur­chase

11. Tent

    • Just like sleep­ing bags. No need to explain. Of course, you can sleep in your car or test the wilder­ness… but is it even camp­ing? Splurge for the nicer brands & if you’re a newb, buy one you’re able to build by your­self. Although peo­ple are always around that will glad­ly assist, the quick­er you can set up, the soon­er you can par­ty.
    • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — By far, EZ-UP Tents are the future. LITERALLY just un-box and in under 60 sec­onds, you have a tem­po­rary house for the week­end. Sold any­where with sport­ing goods, I rec­om­mend the­se for a quick & easy set up!
    • LINK to pur­chase –

12. Good Boogie Shoes

    • Your feet will be your main method of trans­porta­tion this week­end, so KEEP THEM SAFE! Good boo­gie shoes are cru­cial. Com­fort­able, stur­dy, & prefer­ably dark­er col­or so they can wash easy after!
    • Rec­om­mend­ed Buy — There’s so many dif­fer­ent pref­er­ences and dif­fer­ences, we’ll leave this one up to you! Just make sure the kicks you pick can stand up to 2–5 days of absolute mad­ness while keep­ing your feet­sies smil­ing too!

13. Propane Stove

    • Ever tried cook­ing over a camp fire? Super cool & nos­tal­gic. But not easy, effi­cient, and hon­est­ly, effec­tive. 
      With one of the­se propane stoves, you’re cook­ing JUST like at home… if you’re home has bagged wine & wooks lay­ing about. But still. You get what I mean. Super easy to set up too. Lit­er­al­ly just hook it up & light the flame!
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — Wal­mart sells this bad boy that burn’s beau­ti­ful­ly. For about $40.00, you’re swim­ming in bacon, eggs, and all sorts of yum­my meals mid-rage.
    • LINK to Pur­chase

14. Condoms

    • Anoth­er self-explain­able item. It’s bet­ter to have one and not need it, than need it an not have one. Also. The­se greasy suck­ers make for killer bal­loons if you’re bored.
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — Con­doms are about safe­ty. So why not be super duper safe? I rec­om­mend going with some­thing that has sper­mi­ci­dal lubri­cant, so that if the case that a break occurs, you have a sec­ond line of defense again­st those pesky lit­tle things. I think their called babies. My long­time con­fi­dant in the­se mat­ters is Tro­jan.
    • LINK to pur­chase

15. Sunblock

    • We’ve said it before and said it again, the sun is more ruth­less than Den­zel in Train­ing Day. Don’t fuck with it. Buy your­self some SPF 9200 and be safe. If you burn on Day 1, you’ll look like ET fly­ing over the moon, wrapped up in a strangers tapes­try, all week­end long.
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — As you can imag­ine, I’ll rec­om­mend a high SPF to keep you safe, but also, a major key, is a spray on ver­sion. The spray on sun blocks keep hands rel­a­tive­ly less greasy & make it eas­ier to share with oth­ers.

16. Tarp

    • This one is one of my favorite camp­ing secrets I get shit for. Tarps are made to bust you out of sit­u­a­tions. They’re durable, light, and strong. Wet mud? Put your tarp down and boom, your tent stays dry. Rain­ing lots? Put a tarp over your tent. No shade? Climb a tree and rig a tarp for a make shift roof. The uses are end­less!
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — Depend­ing on the sit­u­a­tion of the fes­ti­val, i’d sug­gest to get two 10×10 or so size Tarps. This is man­age­able to car­ry, use, and fold back up. You’re local Home Depot, Lowes, or Wal­mart will car­ry an assort­ment of sizes.
    • LINK to Pur­chase

17. First Aid Kit

    • Anoth­er obvi­ous! We get scrapes, scratch­es and all sorts of weird injuries as you adven­ture the jun­gles of a fes­ti­val. Be safe & super clutch by hav­ing a box of band aids & oth­er small dress­ings.
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — Ama­zon offers this awe­some, small kit that I always trav­el with. It cov­ers all the basics and will def­i­nite­ly aid most dilem­mas.
    • LINK to pur­chase

18. Pack of Lighters

    • This one isn’t as essen­tial as oth­ers, but def­i­nite­ly super CLUTCH. Whether it’s a can­cer stick or the dev­ils let­tuce, peo­ple WILL need fire to light up their smokes. More like­ly than not, they will not have there own incen­di­ary device. Bring a cheap pack of lighters & gift them to those ask. Not only will you make some­ones day, but slow­ly but sure­ly we’ll final­ly #End­LighterTheft2016
    • Rec­om­mend­ed to Buy — Every city has a sketchy flee mar­ket. Find your local one & scour around. Here you’ll find packs of lighters for what comes out to like a nick­el a pop.
      Score one of the­se and you’re set for the fes­ti­val sea­son!

19. Water

    • The elixir of life! Water is a core com­po­nent to your sur­vival. As much of a given as this is, you’ll still be sur­prised how few of peo­ple, bring water to a fes­ti­val. I’ve even been caught guilty of this, but only because I con­sid­er light beer my hydra­tion source. Which. Isn’t safe or for the weak heart­ed.

20. Clamps, Tape, & Twine/Rope

    • Because so many peo­ple didn’t read this list, they prob­a­bly have all sorts of

      stuff they for­got to bring. So I high­ly rec­om­mend hav­ing the­se back up builder acces­sories to help put your camp­site togeth­er. With a few clamps, duct tape, and rope, any blun­der or camp­site neces­si­ty can be han­dled.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

21. Good Vibes

    • It’s real easy. Just smile & accept the moments as they come. Be kind to other’s and share often. You’ll come to find out every bit of love you project out­ward will triple on its way back in.

If you need a few more camp­ing fes­ti­val tips, click here to learn how to be the best neigh­bor pos­si­ble! Also includes a BONUS set of rules for you to live by whilst camp­ing!