No luck getting tickets for your favourite festival this year? No ticket, no problem. We say, grab your festival tent, pray for sunshine and create your own. Whether your love is music, arts, food or Morris dancing, whatever you’re organising this summer, our DIY festival checklist will make sure you don’t miss out on the action, giving you a day, night or weekend to remember.
Number of guests
Not all of us can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in our backyard (unless you happen to own a farm of course, lucky Michael Eavis,) so to some extent you will need to consider your location based on how many people are expected to attend. If you’re having any sort of public event or charity fundraiser, it’s sensible to ask guests to at least RSVP, or to ticket your event (even if these are free), so you can keep track of how many people will turn up.
Location, location, location
Once you know how many people you’re expecting, you can think about venue. Even if this is to be outdoors, do you want an indoor space that people can escape to if the weather takes a turn for the worse? How will guests be arriving? If vehicle access isn’t particularly great, or parking facilities are limited, you will need to make sure your do is accessible by public transport, or at least make arrangements to ferry people to the event site. Of course is this is at your house then this is less of a problem.
When nature calls
We know we talk about toilets a lot on this blog, but the availability of bathroom facilities is something you will need to consider when hosting a DIY festival. If you’re in your own home, a public or private building, it’s more than likely there will be adequate toilet facilities, so our advice here would be to just make sure you’ve checked they are accessible and have stocked up on toilet roll and hand sanitiser. However, if you are DIY’ing somewhere more remote, or hosting an event for a large number of people, then you will need to think about hiring some portable loos. You will always need more than you think!
Food is life
Speaking of facilities, food and drink are another basic need and hungry festival goers aren’t always a happy bunch. If you’re at home, keep it simple with lots of nibbles and sharing platters. Again, if you are hosting a slightly larger scale event then you will need to think about catering. Depending on how many people are attending, this could be pre-prepared or you could hire a local foodie van or two to feed the masses. Make sure you whack out a few rubbish and recycling bins too, to avoid the place resembling a zombie apocalypse once everyone has left!
Pitching up
Now, clearly the team here at Gorilla do love a tent, but we’re definitely not wrong when we say that key to a good festival experience, is a good festival tent! No matter where or what your event, think about how many people will be camping and therefore how many tents you’ll need. Make sure your allocated site is in a safe and secure area and you have the relevant permission to camp. Aside from the boring bits, we think it’s important to inject a little fun into your festival when it comes to your tent, which is why all of our tent designs are bright and beautiful! So if you need to set up a mini-campsite, our range of funky festival tents will help add to the atmosphere.
The entertainment
You’ve gathered your guests, sorted logistics and got the facilities up and running. All that’s left is to provide the entertainment! Now admittedly, most festivals do centre on music, although this doesn’t mean that yours needs to have the same focus. However if you do want musical vibes, local acts are a great place to start. Of course for your back-garden extravaganza, it’s just as fun to live-stream your favourite festival, sat around your tents with a cold drink, with the added bonus that you won’t need to queue for the bar. *Boring comment alert* Just remember to avoid irritating your neighbours by keeping the noise to a reasonable level once the sun goes down.
Our final tip?
A festival wouldn’t be complete without fancy dress outfits, disposable cameras, face paints, plenty of beverages and glitter. Lots of glitter.
Have you ever run your own festival or mini-event? Share your top tips in the comments or over on our Facebook or Twitter pages. And don't forget to tag us in all of your festival antics this summer on Instagram - however small!