Festival Essentials: Tailgating & Base Camp
Shade, cold beer and food, music, light, and a comfortable place to sit at the end of a long day of festival shenanigans. These are a few essentials you’ll want at your festival base camp. And you’ll get good use out of all of these things when the festival is over.
#5 | Kelty Flashback Mini
Spotlight AND lantern, smaller than a can of beer. Light up your tent, camp kitchen with the lantern mode or use the spotlight for your 4:00am walk to the outhouse. We love this inexpensive, compact, versatile, AAA powered light from Kelty.
#4 | Therm-a-Rest Treo Chair
Those inexpensive fold up camp chairs are bulky, and your car only has so much room. But you gotta have a place to park your carcass when you return to camp. The light weight, compact, and ultra comfy Therm-a-Rest Treo chair is your answer.
PS – Therm-a-Rest also happens to make the best sleeping pads on the planet!
#3 | Fugoo Bluetooth Speaker
Sure, you’ll be out listening to live music all weekend. That doesn’t mean the music should stop when you return to camp. The Fugoo Bluetooth speaker is waterproof, shock proof, has an impressive 40 hour run time, and sounds as good as any portable Bluetooth speaker we’ve heard! With a boatload of jackets and accessories including bike, strap, and multi mounts, we don’t know why you’d buy any other portable speaker.
$200 | fugoo.com
#2 | Yeti Tundra 35 Cooler
Yeah, it’s expensive, but nothing (NOTHING!) keeps ice longer than Yeti coolers. And while you’ll probably be more concerned about your buddies stealing your beer than the bear proof protection it provides, you’ll be thankful that your food stays cold all weekend in one of these coolers. Invest in a good cooler because spoiled food and warm beer is a drag.
Need more storage? Go bigger with the Tundra 65 or monstrous Tundra 105.
Portability? The Hopper 20 is your cooler!
#1 | REI InCamp Shelter 100
Unless you’re blessed with the rare treat of wooded festival camping, one of your primary concerns will be providing shade for you and your crew. Since nature isn’t going to do it for you, you’ll have to make shade yourself. REI’s InCamp Shelter 100 (100 square feet) will be money well spent. Trust us, it will come in handy many times away from your festival adventures – soccer tournaments, beach outings, backyard parties – to name a few.
Bonus: Easily docs to the REI InCamp 4 tent, or tuck any tent up next to this shelter.
