Don’t Take Valuables
There really is no need to take valuables to a festival with you since all the entertainment you could want should be at your fingertips. Taking valuables is simply putting yourself at risk of becoming a victim of crime, and having your experience in the sun ruined.
Instead, if you want to take a camera buy a disposable one and if your phone is of the Blackberry or Iphone variety, invest in a cheap pay as you go handset just for the festival, while you also benefit from a much longer battery life than more expensive, feature rich models.
Drink Responsibly
This doesn’t just mean not drinking yourself into oblivion – it also entails watching where and with whom you leave your drink, and not accepting drinks from strangers. The problem with festivals is that we do tend to let our guards down quite significantly, making not only
personal safety a bigger issue but crowd control also (large numbers of intoxicated youths rarely lead to good things). While the organisers themselves can help to reduce our risk of danger in crowds using methods such as the rectractable barrier, they can’t stop us from forgetting the age old rule of ‘don’t accept sweets off strangers’ and putting ourselves into dangerous situations.
Relax
Large crowds of people can easily cause us to get stressed, therefore the best tip is to just relax and go with the flow. The festival organisers should have placed a significant amount of emphasis on ways to keep the crowds safe, such as using the retractable barrier. The retractable barrier is used to limit the amount of people that are able to enter a particular area of the festival at any one time, therefore reducing the size of the crowds and the risk of the crowds becoming dangerous. However, it is important not to rely entirely on crowd control methods such as the retractable barrier to ensure your safety, and that you do what you can to look after yourself. It’s not uncommon in these environments to find yourselves being pushed slightly, or to experience people stepping on your toes – however, if you get angry, upset or irate you’re putting yourself in more danger than if you just relax and accept it as part of the experience.
Take Precautions In The Sun
While we all hope and pray for the sun to shine over the festival fields, the reality is that it can often cause us more problems than it’s worth. Even mild sun stroke can make you ill enough to ruin your festival, and heat stroke can be life threatening. There’s also a high risk of sunburn that at best, is irritating and at worst could be painful enough to put a huge dampener on the festivities.
In order to reduce the chance of succumbing to any of these conditions, keep plenty of water and sun cream at the ready. It might feel like those pints of beer are hydrating you but in fact, they’re doing exactly the opposite and increasing your chances of becoming seriously ill – so keep sipping on water, even if you don’t feel like you need it. In addition, make sure your sun cream is at least actor 15 (or stronger) and reapply it regularly.
By: Steven Miller
