We couldn’t be more excited about the impending arrival of summer – and with our festival survival guide, you can celebrate with us in style.
Live music and cultural activities, sunny afternoons, groups of friends…and G&Ts. It’s no wonder that festival season is the high-point of our summer social calendar. Of course, festival season also has the potential to go wrong – from waterlogged tents to muddy clothes to a lack of delicious tipples (especially unlucky, in our opinion) – which can certainly spoil some of the fun.
Do prepare, then, with our quick festival survival guide, which will ensure that you’re well dressed, well looked after, and especially well hydrated.
Fashion and Function
While festivals tend to mean camping, that doesn’t mean your style needs to suffer as a result. Travel with a few essential staples – a floppy hat fits the fashion code (and covers messy locks), while light layers and breathable fabrics will keep you cool. A few extra shirts and a trusty pair of boots will take your far, should the weather go pear-shaped. Top with a lightweight, cross-body bag for your essentials (no bumbags required).
Festival Essentials
Beyond the wardrobe, make sure you’ve packed a few further essentials. If you’re able to bring along a cooler full of frozen water bottles, you’ll fight heat and thirst all at once (and do some cocktail-making on the go…more on that in a minute). A lightweight, inflatable mattress will ensure you begin your mornings refreshed, and a back-up charger will let you document the revelry throughout the festival.
We’ll be toting along our bottles to a number of gin-soaked events this summer.
Cocktail Preparation
We would be remiss if our festival survival guide didn’t also include advice on tippling. Some seasoned festival-goers have shared advice with us in the past about making their own tent-side cocktails. Think: handy kits that include portable cocktail making supplies, foldable bottles, and small stoppers full of bitters and other specialty ingredients tucked away amongst your toiletries. With the aforementioned frozen water bottles and a few fresh fruits, you’re well on your way to bartending on the go.
(Of course, it should be noted that we encourage following festival tippling policies – and, as we’ll be on hand for a number of events this summer, you’ll never be far from a good gin serve.)
Locate the Ambulance
The Bloody Mary Ambulance, that is (though it is, of course, sensible to locate the first-aid centre, too). One of the highlights of the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall, which we’re pleased to once again attend from 28th to 31st July this summer, is our roving hangover-helper. Festival-goers experiencing sore heads in the morning should keep their eyes peeled (behind sunglasses, if necessary) for our ambulance, where a good splash of the hard stuff should set things right.
Summer Festivals (with Gin)
Beyond the smashing Port Eliot, we’ll also be toting along our bottles of gin to a number of other events this summer. Look out for us at Wilderness, held 4th-7th August in Oxfordshire. Our Sipsmith Gin Shop will be popping up, and we’ll be pouring liberally and even sampling inventive sips from our Distillery Lab at the Big Feastival, held on Alex James’s farm in the Cotswolds from 26th-28th August. And we’ll be winding down the summer at Festival Number 6 in Portmeirion from 1st-4th September, where the gin will be flowing.
Do keep an ear out, as we’ll be announcing more festival appearances in the coming weeks. Long live summer!
Feature images © monkeybusinessimages/iStock; temmuz can arsiray/iStock
