Festival Guide: FOOD

Today will we be talking about what kinds of food you should pre-pack for taking too festivals, since damn, dem festival food stalls can be pricey! £4 for chips and gravy. FOUR POUND. WHAT IS LIFE.

Anywaysssss, when going to festivals, if you are camping over, you should always take food supplies. With all the excitement of Reading, I wasn’t terribly hungry most of the time, but I still made sure I ate some food to keep me going. You must do this too!

1) TINS. TINS OF EVERYTHING (and a can opener)

Yes, tins are the most important thing, apart from cutlery, you could take to a festival food wise. By tins, I mean spaghetti hoops, baked beans, ravioli, beef wellington, ANYTHING that you can cook in a tin, get it. I even took a tin of sweetcorn for a healthy kick on one of the days. TINS. They might be heavy on the way in but you will praise how easy they are to chuck on a fire or BBQ (remember your tongs too) and heat up. PLEASE REMEMBER TO OPEN THE TIN BEFORE YOU COOK IT. IT WILL EXPLODE OTHERWISE. And once it’s cooked, voila, you have a meal in a tin. Sorted.
I suggest you aim for two meal tins a day (one for breakfast, one for dinner!)

2) CEREAL BARS/MINI CEREAL BOXES

Brilliant idea. My friend did this. I wish I had done it. Having one of these in the morning, either a bar or a box, is a great bit of dry food added to your breakfast, along with the tin of food. Plus, with cereal bars you can pop one in your bag if you get peckish in the arena!

!ALTERNATIVE! ~ Alternatively, if you want a sugar rush, you can also have those multibuy chocolate bar packs but they might melt, so be warned!

3) BREAD

If you want to take bread with you, I suggest you freeze it first in resealable bags, 2-3 slices per bag. They will last a lot longer and it will be a lot more organised than buying a loaf the night before and having it get a bit squished and end up not using it...
ALSO take some sort of skewers or buy them when you get there so you can toast bread, sausages, marshmallows, over the fire.

4) DRIED FRUIT

If you want to take fruit with you I’d highly suggest dried fruit. You can get small packets too pop in your food bad, and also in your arena bag if you want. I think next year I am going to follow my own advice and take some dried fruit. You can also take fruit in a tin, but I think dried fruit is easier (and lighter. Remember you have to potentially carry this lot too your campsite!)

5) LIQUIDS

I will be covering all the liquids from alcohol to water here. It’s easier to sum it up in one paragraph! With water, I suggest you take an EMPTY two litre bottle with you and fill it up on site and pop it in your tent AND ALWAYS KEEP IT FILLED. Fill it up every evening or something. One thing I was always needing was water, especially in the morning. If you fill it up in the evenings, you will have some water in the mornings when your mouth is dry, and to brush your teeth with. It might get a little warm in your tent but what can you do? As long as you are hydrated, that is what matters!
With alcohol, I recommend you definitely decant it into a plastic bottle, as camp sites don’t often let glass bottles on site. If you DO decant it into a plastic bottle, I implore you to label it somehow. Vodka and water can look very similar in a plastic bottle. VERY SIMILAR.
Alternative liquids to take; juice in cartons (please don’t buy them from the fridge. Buy them from the shelf!) and UHT milk from the shelves. Don’t take anything that you have bought refrigerated!

• You can buy food in nearby supermarkets (or on site supermarkets, but a nearby Tesco’s will be cheaper) when you get there, but I suggest packing a majority of your food before you go so you don’t have to worry about it when you get there!
• There is a multitude of stalls within the arena, but if you are like I was, then you won’t even get hungry because you will be too busy enjoying yourself!
• Make sure you definitely have breakfast! Have a tin of something, some bread and a cereal bar/cereal box.
• REMEMBER TO TAKE DISPOSABLE BBQS. If you are going as a group, discuss how many each you will take. We were a group of six, and we used about two per day, cooking things on our fire in the evenings.
• In reference to fires, you can often find firewood being sold on site, or on the way to the local supermarket (it was £1 cheaper outside).
• Remember things like matches/lighters, tongs (for taking things on and off fires and BBQs), can openers, plastic cutlery, paper plates (if you really want, we didn’t use any) and skewers.

Okay, that’s everything to do with food! If you have any questions, please ask! I am a festival newbie, so I might not know everything, but this is what I learned from my experience this year at Reading!

STAY BEAUTIFUL

Kitty xoxox~<3>