Festival van hire guide: tips for the perfect experience

Glastonbury, Bestival, Leeds, Reading – which festival is your favourite? Wherever you’re headed for festival fun, make your trip even better by booking a campervan as your festival accommodation. You’ll have a proper bed, be away from packed tent fields, and be safe from unwanted weather like Glastonbury’s famous floods and mud baths… always a win. Read on for our top tips on taking a campervan to a festival for the ultimate festival experience.

Pick your festival

Fret not if your fingers weren’t fast enough to nab tickets for Glasto, as the UK has festivals of all flavours around the country, all year round and to suit all tastes. Music festivals, food festivals, cider or gin fests, literary festivals, sea shanties and hundreds more all await for the adventurous – browse festival finder websites likeSkiddle andeFestivals for inspiration.

Bonus: if you go for a festival outside peak summer season, you could hire a campervan for a lower cost. In any season, make sure to book early to ensure a spot.

Book your campervan ticket

All the bigger festivals should have facilities for van campers, but double check before buying your ticket. Campervan tickets are usually weekend only rather than per day, so take that into account if you’re on a tighter budget. Each person in the campervan will likely need a full weekend ticket too.

Remember that for smaller festivals, you might have to park up nearby or at a local campsite. The festival organisers might have location suggestions, or you can search by festival postcode, town or county on campsite booking sites likeUKCampsite andcampsites.co.uk.

Check out the campervan area at the festival

Most big festivals will have site maps on their websites, showing the various camping areas, stages and essentials like toilets and food stalls. It’s likely that the campervan area will be 10-30 minutes’ walk from the main event, so plan accordingly: you’ll probably want to bring a day pack with everything you need (food, water, sunscreen, plasters, wet wipes) so you don’t have to trail back and forth to the van.

Also take a detailed look at the campervan area itself, to see where essentials like water points are (plus the closest toilets if you haven’t got one on board).

Hire your wheels

You have your tickets, now it’s time to hire your wheels. We have hundreds ofcampervans for hire in the UK, and you can filter your search for van features like automatic or manual transmission, facilities on board like showers and toilets, or your maximum price. Add the festival dates to narrow your search further.

Book as far in advance as possible to get the widest range of campervans to pick from. And no worries if you’ve splurged most of your pay on the festival tickets – hiring with Camplify means you only pay 25% deposit when you book. Even better, the site’scancellation policies mean you can cancel up to 45 days or less before the start of the booking and receive a full refund minus the cancellation processing fee (£13).

Make it a road trip

Who wants to go away just for the weekend? Make a road trip of your festival holiday and go sightseeing before or after. We have loads of inspiration and maps on our road trip blogs – for example, if you’re going to Glastonbury, check out ourbest road trip around South-West England guide.

Make your packing list

All our campervans for hire have lists of what’s included, for example bed linen, cooking kit or outdoor furniture. As you’ve booked in advance, you’ll be able to see in plenty of time exactly what’s on offer and what you need to bring. Remember to check the festival website before making your packing list to see what items aren’t allowed, such as glass bottles. If you’re off on a road trip after the festival, buy these items afterwards.

It’s likely you’ll be off-grid too (most festivals won’t allow generators), either relying on the campervan’s solar panels or its charged leisure battery. So take this into account when packing – this is maybe not the time to bring your hair straighteners.

Our campervan festival packing list:

• Bedding and towels (if not included)

• Rug or picnic blanket for outside

• Toilet roll

• Antiseptic kitchen wipes or kitchen roll

• Shower gel (if showers on site or in the van), dry shampoo and baby wipes if not

• Washing-up liquid, tea towel and washing-up cloth/sponge (if not included)

• Cutlery and plastic mugs and plates (if not included)

• Snacks and food

• Plastic bags and bin bags

• Extra clothes including a hoodie, jacket or warm jumper

• Comfortable footwear like trainers or wellies

• First-aid kit including plasters and painkillers

• Bottles for water

• Sunglasses

• Sunscreen

• Earplugs

• Torch

• Cash – almost all stalls somewhere like Glastonbury will take cards, but have some cash as back-up just in case

• Portable or solar powered chargers for gadgets

Check out ourultimate road trip packing list for more ideas.

Think security

Bigger festivals will probably have security guards patrolling the camping fields, but don’t rely on this factor alone to keep your stuff safe. Make sure all valuables are hidden from view before you leave the campervan for the day, and obviously that the windows and door are locked and secure.

All campervans on Camplify arecomprehensively insured against accidents and damage while on hire – at no extra cost to the hirer. You might want to take out additional theft insurance such as cover for camping personal effects.

Arrive early

As with arriving at a campsite, aim to arrive at the festival early so you can park up and set up with plenty of time. Remember that for festivals like Glastonbury, there might be long queues to access the camping areas, so have water and snacks and be prepared to wait.

Make your mark

It sounds obvious, but it’s also been a source of stress for many a camping festival-goer – make sure you know where your pitch is and how to get back to it. There could be several fields of campervan parking, so make a note of your field name and van position, plus any landmarks. Add this to your phone, backed up by a paper note to use if you run out of charge.

A great idea is to mark your pitch with a flag or banner attached to the campervan – something you can spot from a distance. Bring rope to attach the banner, as many festivals for security reasons won’t allow flagpoles.

That’s it – all you have to do now is sit back and enjoy the festival!