Welcome Traveler! You’ve stumbled upon the Ultimate Music Festival Packing List and Survival Guide. This heady lump of majestic content will have you more prepared than ever before embarking on the next camping festival adventure.
Table of Contents, Skip Ahead
- Essential Music Festival Items
- Music Festival Camping and Comfort Gear/Supplies
- Music Festival Food, Snacks and Cooking Supplies
- Music Festival Personal Items and Toiletries
- Music Festival Apparel, Gear and Accessories
- Music Festival Road Trip and Traveling Essentials
- Music Festival Photography and Video Gear
Let's Dive Right into The Ultimate Music Festival Packing List and Festival Survival Guide
Some of these items will feel like common sense mentions but when you’re in the thick of the excitement, you’d be surprised in what magnificent ways you could space out and forget things, have no fear this Music Festival Packing List and Survival Guide has you covered!
Essential Music Festival Items
- Your Ticket / Festival Wristband for which you’re attending
- Your Parking Pass / Window Sticker
- Your Wallet, Money, Credentials that may be required for admittance
- Your Smartphone / Communication Device
- Spare Car Keys, set for friend if they need access to vehicle
- Positive Vibes
Music Festival Camping and Comfort Gear/Supplies
🍄 Tent / Shelter: When choosing a tent, smaller is sometimes better depending on the festivals you’ll be attending. Some festivals like Electric Forest have pretty limited space in the GA camping area so a compact high-quality option like the Gazelle T4 Hub Tent is perfect. The T4 is an excellent premium option which requires almost zero effort to setup, it’s ridiculously fast and easy.
Additional Options: 2 Person | 3 Person | 4 Person | 6 Person | 8 Person
🍄 Shade Canopy: Placing a canopy over your tent provides an essential layer of shade, extending your comfort in the tent after sunrise. This is especially crucial in non-shaded camping areas which are most common at large music festivals like Bonnaroo, especially in GA (General Admission) areas.
In addition to shading your tent, a canopy offers a weather protected common area for socializing with your group. This is one reason that we highly recommend a smaller footprint tent (like the T4) that can be placed in one corner of the canopy’s footprint leaving space for seating, table, storage, cooler and so forth.
We prefer 12×12 Canopies, the other most common size is 10×10.
🍄 Corkscrew Ground Anchors: An absolute must for keeping your canopy secure during storms that destroy campsites, these are used in conjunction with the ratchet straps listed next.
Securing your canopy not only benefits you but also protects your neighbors from potential damage. Unsecured canopies can take flight and cause widespread destruction.
Please share this Essential Music Festival Packing List and Survival Guide with others and help prevent canopy graveyards 🪦
🍄 Set of 4+ Ratchet Tie-Down Straps: You’ll use these to secure all 4 corners of your canopy frame to the ground anchors placed at each leg. Make sure to tighten fully but not too much because you could start to bend the frame.
🍄 Air Mattress or Cot: You can go pretty extravagant and get one with an off-ground bed frame/air mattress combo, a double height queen, single low profile, or one of the trusty and comfortable padded cots from Coleman.
🍄 Sleeping Bag, Comforter and / or Blankets, Comfortable and Affordable Pillows
🍄 Aluminet (aluminum weaved shadecloth): This stuff is wonderful and can make a significant difference when used for canopy walls or top covering. Aluminet is highly reflective and breathable creating a noticeable difference in temperatures when placed in-line with the sun.
Music Festival MVP: Aluminet is the best product for heat reflection and shade
🍄 Electric Power Station / Generator: These are extremely nice for keeping your devices charged or powered the entire festival. Most of these work with solar panels that can keep them charged wherever sunlight is available.
Here’s a Value option | midrange | high end | no expense spared – Many other options will also work great whether it be a Jackery, Ecoflow, Bluetti, Goal Zero or an off-brand as long as it has a good number of positive reviews.
🍄 Lantern: Value | compact/magnetic | lantern+power bank
🍄 Tarps & Shadecloths: (you should buy that aluminet!) Tarps can be an essential item for protection against poor weather. Despite using tarps as canopy walls in the past, it is not ideal since they do not breathe and allow for any air exchange. It is only recommended to use tarps during storms for water protection against the elements.
Using a tarp for your canopy walls is far from ideal, many festival goers have done this for years, but it can actually make things worse, tarps do not breathe and will trap in hot air when used to enclose a canopy area.
Breathable shadecloths are a far better option than using tarps, once again opting for lighter colors. The ABSOLUTE BEST way to shade and cool your campsite if you’ll be in direct sun is by using Aluminet.
🍄 Bath Towels: Affordable 2pack option
🍄 Camping Chairs / Seating: Never underestimate the importance of comfortable seating especially if you’ll be spending a decent amount of time at camp. There are numerous styles of chairs you can bring from inflatable, reclining, utility (fold out table w/ pockets!), and everything in between.
You can even get sofas, loveseats, “chill beans” and more! Be sure to check with each music festival you’ll be attending in case you’re looking for seating that’s permitted into the festival’s venue area — Many options will likely need to remain in the camping area.
🍄 Coolers & Food Storage: Ideally it’s nice to have multiple coolers one for drinks and one for food since the drink cooler will have more traffic. Using a dryer cooling method for the food cooler is also recommended whether it be cooling packs, frozen bottles rather than loose ice, or even dry ice itself. If money is no object when it comes to coolers, you can opt for one of the top premium brands like YETI.
A hanging fruit basket can be a real nice addition to your campsite as well, we like to hang one of these from the corner of our canopy and fill it with a variety of fresh fruits. Just be careful that it’s not hung in line with direct sunlight or your fruit won’t last long.
Festival Tip: Freeze water bottles instead of using bagged ice in your cooler. Once the bottles have thawed, you’ll still have ice cold drinking water and can then switch to bagged ice for the remainder of the festival if needed.
🍄 Freshening Spray / Damprid: For your tent and bedding in case of moisture issues from storms or leaks. If you don’t have a ground mat under your tent it’s a great idea to have a tarp under it’s footprint.
When using a tarp under your tent, make sure it doesn’t stick out beyond the tent’s footprint as to avoid collecting rain and pooling water under the tent.
🍄 Cleaning Supplies / Trash Bags: Cleaning sprays, paper towels, trash bags, wet wipes / baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and similar products will be important as we once again mention… Festivals are dirty!
Always pick up after yourselves, be respectful of the festival grounds.
🍄 Music Devices: Bluetooth speaker, battery powered boombox
🍄 Automotive Power Inverter: Here are some additional options
🍄 Jumper Cables: I’ve seen these save the day plenty of times.
🍄 Hand / Feet Warmers: Don’t get caught in cold conditions.
Highly Recommended: CGEAR Sand Free Mat is fantastic
🍄 Ground Covering: CGEAR Ground mat (highly recommended) this extremely durable and porous ground mat will cover the entire space of your GA campsite at most festivals, doesn’t trap sand (falls through) and is also stylish and provides more clean places to sit. This helipad grade mat can be staked down around it’s edges, so it’ll stay put the entire festival. Continuing: area rugs, tent entry doormat, additional ground stakes for the CGEAR ground mat.
🍄 Hammocks: A staple (more options) for a lot of festival goers.
🍄 Tapestries, Flags, Solar / Decorative Lighting: Hanging tapestries can be used for both privacy and decoration, be sure to have some binder clips for easy hanging. A high-flying flag or light up beacon made solar powered lights atop a telescoping flagpole is a great way to mark your campsite.
There are so many fun options for decorative solar garden lighting that can be used in creative ways. Fairy lights, string lights and rope lights are also a great way to decorate your camp for night. This flowing aurora light which can be projected onto the ceiling of your canopy creates a beautiful ambient lighting effect.
These solar powered, realistic flame effect torches are also an awesome way to mark your campsite and the effect looks quite natural like real fire.
This trippy 3D LED Infinity Mirror is also fun to play with.
🍄 Locking Carabiners: These things can be extremely useful for all sorts of purposes and keeping various items attached to you. These are great for security if you want to secure an item like your GoPro, Gimbal, etc. to your hydration pack/backpack so it’s not easily swiped by someone walking behind you.
🍄 Hydration Pack / Backpack / Fanny Pack: Hydration packs are considered by many an essential item for festivals, we highly recommend Osprey for both hydration packs and standard backpacks.
Make sure you buy a pack that fits the guidelines of the festivals you’ll be attending; many venues have size limits and do not allow large or metal framed packs.
🍄 General Storage, Portable Table, Storage Totes: Having some storage and organization items can be very handy. We like these 3-drawer storage carts as a bedside stand for our Honeywell fan and storage for general/personal items in one convenient location within the tent.
A portable table is great to have at camp for general use or additional storage. If you opt for a more basic fold up table without integrated storage you can likely fit your coolers or totes underneath saving on ground space.
🍄 Bungee Cords, Zip-Ties, Binder Clips, Twine: There are so many uses for bungee cords and zip-ties that I’ll just say you should have some! Binder clips are one of the best ways to hang up tapestries and twine can also be uses for hanging and securing items in a number of ways.
Festival Tip: binder clips are perfect for tapestries
🍄 Bike Lock Cables & Padlocks: A great way to secure items to your campsite is through linking bike lock cables & padlocks. Totes with holes in the lids can be secured shut with padlocks like this and attached to something immovable like your vehicle so nobody can run off with them when you’re not around.
We’ve used this to secure solar panels, totes, power stations, etc. you can of course always lock items like this in your vehicle but that can sometimes become a hassle if you’re doing it frequently or slip up and forget to.
🍄 Compact Flashlight: This can come in clutch to have in your pocket, attached to a keyring or one of those carabiners. You can always opt for a slightly larger option but a compact one like this is great to have on hand at all times.
Of course, you could use your phone for this but maybe you need light to find your phone… or it’s dead and needs to be recharged at this point.
🍄 Gaffers Tape: This tape is incredibly useful for just about anything, it’s kind of like duct tape without the sticky residue or permanence unless it needs to be. This stuff is essential in the stage crew world for example.
🍄 Batteries, Power Banks: This one should have been way up there with the Power Stations but better late than never. Depending on what you may need to power it’s probably best to just have an assortment of AAA, AA, and possibly C batteries plus USB power banks and charging cables.
Many of these generic brand power banks will work but be careful to read the reviews and choose based on customer feedback. If you’re ok with spending a bit more money, one of the most trusted brands is Anker.
Music Festival Food, Snacks and Cooking Supplies
Survival Tip: prioritize effortless but healthy snacks
When it comes to food a lot of it boils down to personal preference, but we prefer to bring lots of simple to prepare or ready to go snacks and less labor-intensive meals to keep our experience as effortless as possible.
Items such as fresh fruits, jerky, protein/granola bars, trail mix, cheese sticks, peanut butter, veggies and sandwich components can all go a long way if you’re trying to avoid spending money on vendor food.
For foods that require cooking, a compact propane camp stove is highly recommended. Eggs, sausage, bacon, hotdogs, burgers, soups, grilled cheese, even s’mores can be prepared without fire.
🍄 Propane Camping Stove: Compact propane camp stoves are permitted into most festivals if they use the small camping size propane tanks. Coleman is one of the most trusted options for these cooking appliances.
🍄 Pots, Pans, Potholders & Cooking Utensils: Figure out what types of foods you’re planning to bring and ensure you have the necessary equipment to prepare.
🍄 Plates/Bowls, Utensils, Napkins: Make sure you’ve got everything needed to eat the specific food items you’ve planned for. Plates, bowls, utensils, napkins, drinking cups, straws, and so on.
🍄 Condiments & Seasoning: The usual stuff… salt, ketchup, mustard, various dips, etc. plus any seasoning you’ll use for cooking your hot meals.
🍄 Coffee & Tea Items: If you’re bringing a Keurig, bring come K-Cups or better yet a reusable k-cup coffee filter and a bulk container of your favorite coffee. If you’re a tea person, bring some t-bags and your favorite mug plus something to heat your water in which will also have you covered if you opt for instant coffee.
Remember to bring your preferred creamers and sugar, hot chocolate is another drink that always seems to hit the spot, especially if it’s ever cold.
🍄 Large Supply of Bottled Water
🍄 Ice, Cooling Packs, Frozen Bottles: You’re gonna need lots of cooling power!
🍄 Your Favorite Drinks: Juice, soda, alcohol… whatever else you’re looking to drink besides water, don’t forget to pack it! Make sure you’re aware of any festival specific regulations concerning drinks, many venues do not allow glass bottles or certain types / quantities of alcoholic drinks.
Kool-Aid Jammers and Capri Sun have always been a favorite of ours when camping at a festival, you can fit a ton of them in a cooler and they’re refreshingly tasty 1 or 2 at a time.
🍄 Drink Containers, Koozies, Tumblers & Shot Glasses: Reusable water bottle, drink tumbler, shot glasses and a flask. Be sure you’re aware of the venue regulations at any particular festival as they may not let you bring outside drink containers in unless they are emptied first.
🍄 Biodegradable Dish Soap: If you’re doing any cooking and or using non-disposable dinner wear for drinks/meals. This can also be used for general cleaning, washing hands/feet and so forth but wipes will also come in clutch for that.
🍄 Vitamins, Supplements & Electrolytes: We’re not doctors so we can’t give you medical advice but can definitely recommend taking core vitamins and electrolytes when going hard for several days in a row.
Always do your research when it comes to vitamins and supplements, don’t just blindly take things if you’re not educated on their benefits or side effects.
Ingesting an ample amount of protein, carbohydrates and staying well hydrated will ensure your body is getting the fuel it needs to keep on going.
🍄 Chewing Gum: Chewing gum is really nice to have at a festival and is also a great way to meet new friends since you can offer a piece of anyone and everyone. Buying bulk packs like this gives you an endless supply to do just that.
Gum can be surprisingly wonderful at a festival.
🍄 Stuff for S’Mores: Most festivals won’t let you have a fire but you can still make some smores with the propane camp stove or get creative in some other way.
🍄 Meal Replacement, RTD Protein Drinks: If you want to do things as simply as possible and still get an acceptable level of nutrients in your body, try ready to drink protein shakes or meal replacement drinks.
Survival Tip: hydration, protein & carbs to fuel you
🍄 MREs (Meals Ready-to-Eat): Used by the military and other survivalists for many years, MREs can be pricey but they’re very compact and convenient if you want to take a “tactical approach” to your music festival survival.
Music Festival Personal Items and Toiletries
Staying fresh and clean will keep you feeling like your best, confident self and is also beneficial to those around you. Here are some of the most essential personal items to check off your music festival packing list.
🍄 Solar Camp Shower: Nothing feels better than getting a shower throughout the duration of a festival, having your own personal shower will keep it convenient for the times you don’t want to pay for the real thing (unless it’s included for you).
From the standard Coleman Black Bag option to In-Bucket motorized options, there are a lot of ways to stay clean. You may also purchase a shower tent specifically designed for these camp showers if you prefer a bit more privacy.
🍄 Face Wipes / Baby Wipes: One of the most unanimously used festival hygiene products is definitely the wipes, everyone swears by these, and they come in clutch when showering isn’t an immediate option.
Wiping down your face just for the refreshing feeling of a cool face wipe can feel incredible during the hottest moments, to make things even better keep a pack in your cooler and that’ll be the most satisfying face wipe ever. If only that feeling could last forever.
Festival Tip: baby wipes for staying clean
🍄 Oral Hygiene Products: Definitely make sure to pack your toothbrush, toothepaste, flossers, mouth wash and another clutch product when you’re out in the thick of it are Listerine Tablets.
🍄 Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Soap: Be sure to keep your hair fresh & clean with your favorite shampoo, conditioner and body wash or bar soap. Be sure you’ve got a bath towel and wash cloth / scrubbing item if needed.
🍄 Deodorant: This is for everyone else as much as it is for you… body odor can be extremely off-putting and even nauseating under some circumstances so please don’t forget your deodorant, remember it’s hard for most people to smell their own odor and even know if it’s problematic.
Festival Tip: please use deodorant, for everyone’s sake
🍄 Shaving Products: If you want to go the extra mile and want to keep your hair growth at bay, pack yourself some shaving gel, a razor, and electric trimmer.
🍄 Hair Products: Don’t forget your hair styling products (gel, pomade, clay, sea salt spray, etc.), comb or brush, dry shampoo, hair ties, decorative/costume items.
🍄 Fragrance Items: Your favorite cologne, perfume, body spray. Be sure you’re aware of the festivals glass policy and have your bottle packed someplace where it won’t be easily detected, or you may have it confiscated during car check.
🍄 Sunscreen: You’re going to be out in the sun… a lot. Be sure to check out this guide on The Best Sun Protection by The Consumer Advisor for lots of good information and recommendations for high quality sun protection products.
Survival Tip: remember your sunscreen!
🍄 First Aid Kit, Medicine: What music festival survival guide would be complete without a first-aid kit? A great idea to have on hand in case you suffer any scrapes, cuts, or more serious but self-treatable injuries. Be sure to pack OTC medicines for pain relief, cold, allergies and immunity (Emergen-C, Airbourne).
First aid ointment like Neosporin and other topicals like hydrocortisone cream and Bengay can be very useful for pain and itch relief. Make sure you don’t forget adhesive bandages if you did not opt for a full first aid kit. Another product that can be highly effective in your comfort is Gold Bond which can help with skin irritation, cooling, chafing and itching.
Music Festival Apparel, Gear and Accessories
When it comes to festival fashion, we’ll leave that up to you but always take into account the environment and conditions you’ll be partying in for several days. There’s a pretty decent chance you’ll get filthy and possibly damage some of your attire.
Make sure you’re prepared for everything from extreme heat to chilling lows and rain.
🍄 Footwear: At least 1 pair of comfortable shoes you can spend a great deal of time on without resulting pain or sores, a pair of Sketchers w/ foam insoles are often very comfortable. If you’re into boots, pack those too but many times the options for comfort here are limited so consider packing some memory foam or gel insoles to help with that. Bring a pair of sandals or flip-flops as it’s nice to let the feet breathe in hot weather plus you can wear them into the showers if you use them.
🍄 Socks & Underwear: If you’re planning to spend a good deal of time in either boots or shoes it’s important to have decent socks as well, you can end up with some pretty sore feet after a weekend or longer at a festival. Make sure you’ve got clean underwear, your bra if you wear one and some slip shorts or long boxer briefs if you suffer from thigh chafing (Gold Bond, certain roll-ons can also help).
🍄 Shorts, Skirts, Pants, Fishnets/Stockings: There’s a lot of different ways to go depending on what you’re comfortable in and the temperature, bring options as you may want to switch it up frequently or every day. Guys can often just get away with a pair of cargo shorts (pockets!) and your good to go if it’s a summer festival.
🍄 Shirts, Tanktops, Hoodies, Jackets: We covered your lower half in the last one, now it’s time to get creative on the upper half… or just practical, that’s fine too. Again, plan for all weather conditions and temperatures so a variety of no, short, and long sleeves is great.
If you’ve got any wild jackets, now is the time to break them out… the jacket game is strong at most festivals and we never get tired of seeing them all.
🍄 Bathing Suit, Pajamas/Comfs: If there’s going to be access to water/swimming either on-site or close by it’s nice to have your bathing suit. Even if you just want to wear it as your regular outfit with/without fishnets and other accessories it works!
🍄 Pashminas/Scarves, Bandanas/Masks, Hats & Gloves: Some of these items have varying importance depending on the type of festival you’re attending but many festival goers tend to love their pashminas and masks, especially if you’re attending a very dusty festival the bandana or other face covering can be hugely beneficial.
🍄 Sunglasses, Jewelry, Belts & Other Accessories: You’d probably be pretty bummed if you forget some of these items… especially the sunglasses. This can be a pretty broad category of items though so definitely give it some thought.
🍄 Rain/Mud Gear: Just in case you get hit with one of those inevitable storms it might be nice to have some waterproof footwear like flip-flops, crocs, or certain types of sandals. You can also pack those very small (fit in your pocket) disposable rain ponchos which will take up next to no space at all but be great if you end up needing one.
🍄 Backpack or Hydration Pack: Mentioned previously but worth mentioning again, it’s highly recommended to have a hydration pack (Osprey is our favorite, or Camelbak, etc.) if it’s going to be a hot summer festival but it’s definitely nice to at least have a backpack.
Music Festival Road Trip and Traveling Essentials
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of embarking on a road trip to a music festival. To ensure a smooth and enjoyable journey, it’s essential to pack the right items. Whether you’re driving to a nearby festival or embarking on a cross-country adventure, here’s a list of road trip essentials that will make your journey to and from the music festival a breeze.
🍄 Reliable GPS Navigation System: Before you hit the road, make sure you have a dependable GPS Navigation System or Navigation App on your phone to make sure you stay on course.
🍄 High Quality Rooftop Cargo Carrier / Roof Box: Packing an epic campsite will sometimes take up more space than your vehicle can support, the addition of a Rooftop Cargo Carrier can come in clutch when needing to transport more gear and supplies. Be sure to check out this guide all about rooftop cargo carriers and top choices by the Consumer Advisor.
🍄 Road Maps: While GPS is excellent, having a physical road map can be a lifesaver if your phone battery dies or you lose signal in remote areas. It adds an extra layer of preparedness and helps you plan alternative routes.
🍄 Roadside Emergency Kit: Safety should be a top priority. Ensure you have a well-stocked roadside emergency kit that includes essentials like a jumper pack or jumper cables, a tire pressure gauge, first aid supplies, flashlight, something reflective, and basic tools.
🍄 Spare Tire and Jack: A flat tire can dampen the mood, but having a spare tire and a functional jack will get you back on the road quickly. Before leaving, ensure your spare tire is in good condition and properly inflated.
🍄 Portable Phone Charger, Powerbank: Keep your phone charged at all times, especially if you rely on it for navigation, music, or communication.
🍄 Snacks and Drinks: Pack a variety of snacks and beverages to keep hunger and thirst at bay. Healthy options like granola bars, fruits, and nuts can be great easy snacks.
🍄 Reusable Water Bottles: Stay hydrated on the road by carrying reusable water bottles. This not only reduces waste but also ensures you have access to water even in areas where finding a store might be challenging.
🍄 Travel Pillow and Blankets: Comfort is crucial during long drives. Bring travel pillows and blankets to help you and your passengers catch some rest while on the road.
🍄 Music Playlists and Podcasts: Good music and entertaining podcasts can be a huge help in passing the time especially on those cross-country adventures.
🍄 Cash and Cards: Ensure you have enough cash and your credit/debit cards with you. Some places might not accept cards, or you might encounter tolls along the way.
🍄 Vehicle Documents: Don’t forget your driver’s license, vehicle registration, and insurance documents. Keep them organized and easily accessible in case you need them.
🍄 Camping Gear: If the music festival involves camping, pack all the necessary camping gear like tents, sleeping bags, camping chairs, and cooking equipment.
🍄 Festival Tickets and ID: Double-check that you have your festival tickets and a valid ID before leaving. You don’t want to travel all the way and realize you forgot essential documents.
🍄 Trash Bags: Maintain a clean and organized vehicle by bringing along some trash bags. It’s an easy way to dispose of waste responsibly during your road trip.
🍄 Camera or GoPro: Capture the memories of your road trip and music festival experience by bringing along a camera or GoPro. You’ll want to relive these moments in the future.
🍄 Spare Car Key: Losing your car key during a festival would be a nightmare. Carry a spare key in a secure place just in case.
🍄 Patience and Positive Attitude: Last but not least, pack a healthy dose of patience and a positive attitude. Road trips can have their unexpected twists, but with the right mindset, they often become the best stories to tell.
Music Festival Photography and Video Gear
Music festivals are a vibrant explosion of creativity, energy, and excitement, offering a prime opportunity for photography and filmmaking enthusiasts to capture truly magical moments. Whether you’re a professional or a passionate hobbyist, having the right gear is essential to seizing the essence of the festival in all its glory.
Check Festival Guidelines and Camera Policies
Before packing your gear, always check the guidelines and camera policies of each festival. Most larger festivals restrict professional gear or cameras with detachable lenses. However, compact point-and-shoot cameras, GoPros, Insta360 cameras, and smartphones are generally allowed.
🍄 Media Pass / Permission Documentation: If you’re planning to photograph or film the festival professionally, make sure you have the necessary media credentials to avoid any hassles with security or event organizers. If you’re planning on shooting with a smaller non detachable lens camera, you’re likely good to go as non-professional cameras are often allowed.
Venue and Camping Area Restrictions
Camera restrictions typically apply only in the venue area, meaning you can use your gear more freely in the camping area, provided you remain respectful. This guide will cover essential accessories such as gimbal stabilizers, monopods, mounts, lens filters, and carrying gear. Additionally, we’ll offer insights on various photography and filmmaking techniques to help you make the most of your festival experience.
Camera Body and Lenses
Choosing a Camera Body
For a future-proof investment, we recommend opting for a mirrorless camera. While brand preferences can vary, Sony is a popular choice, but Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, and Fuji also offer excellent options. Whether you choose a mirrorless or DSLR, select a camera that fits your needs and budget but keep the future in mind if you’re serious about photography.
Sensor Size
If your budget allows, a full-frame or larger sensor camera provides superior image quality, low light performance and shallow depth of field. However, there are also excellent cameras with smaller sensors (APS-C, Micro Four Thirds, etc.) that perform well in festival settings with ideal or near-ideal lighting conditions.
Selecting Lenses
Your lens choice depends on your shooting style and how much gear you want to carry. The suggested lenses below are professional level selections and can be substituted based on budget or needs, the focal length (ex: 35mm) is the takeaway for these suggestions and aperture (ex: f/1.4) will vary based on budget.
- 14mm f/1.8: Great for grandiose wide shots and creative close-ups with exaggerated proportions or perspectives, perfect for capturing the entire scene.
- 35mm f/1.4: Versatile for many situations, great focal length for photojournalism.
- 85mm f/1.4: Ideal for portraits and detailed shots, but we love to shoot just about any subject or situation at 85mm assuming there’s enough distance available.
- 24-70mm f/2.8: Great all-in-one workhorse, can be heavy and expensive.
- 70-200mm f/2.8: Great for distance shooting, can be heavy and expensive.
🍄 Extra Batteries and Chargers: Long festival days can drain your camera’s battery quickly. Carry multiple fully charged batteries and a portable charger to keep your camera powered up throughout the event. Depending on your camera body, you may eat through batteries at an alarming rate (especially when shooting 4K+ video) so it’s never a bad idea to go overboard on the amount of batteries you carry and can charge at once.
Having at least a couple high capacity power banks is also highly recommended, you’ll likely be carrying a bag so they can slip right in with the rest of your gear, don’t forget the charging cables and at least one battery charger, preferably for multiple batteries.
🍄 Memory Cards and Storage: Pack an ample supply of high-capacity memory cards to avoid running out of storage space. Consider bringing a portable hard drive or laptop to back up your photos and footage during breaks but only if you’ve got a secure place to keep them because you’d be low on space with a rental locker by now.
It’s always best to bring way more storage than you need than it is to end up debating on what files you should delete to free up space for the final day… it’s an awful feeling. We like to carry our SD and MicroSD memory cards around in an ultra durable case.
🍄 Camera Bag: Choose a comfortable and functional camera bag that can carry all your equipment, including your camera body, lenses, batteries, chargers, and any other accessories.
Only bring a camera bag inside the venue if you’re a credential holding member of the media team or shooting for someone. If you’re going to be attempting to shoot rogue, you should pack very light on the camera gear and try to stay incognito with a cluttered regular backpack. Solid chance you’ll be turned away by bag-check security though so make sure you have a safe place to lock up your gear in this event.
🍄 Monopod or Tripod: A sturdy mounting point for your camera is invaluable for stabilizing your shots, especially in low-light conditions or when capturing long exposures during the night. It’d be impractical to bring a Tripod if you’re not shooting for the media and have a specific purpose for it so a telescoping monopod is an excellent, compact option plus it could even be used for a totem.
🍄 Video Stabilizer / Gimbal: If you plan to shoot video, a gimbal will help you achieve smooth and cinematic footage even in the midst of energetic crowds. If you’re not shooting for media, you’re best keeping this to a compact model designed for a GoPro or smartphone because a larger one might get turned away by security.
There are some very capable and powerful compact options like the Crane M3 or DJI Ronin RS3 Mini and even options that have the camera built right into them like DJI Pocket 2.
🍄 Camera Holster, Capture System: Having a camera holster or capture system can be absolutely wonderful so you’re not needing to be holding your camera all the time. We’ve been using the Peak Design Capture system for the past 5 or so years and it’s so versatile and nice to have for multiple uses. With the Peak Design Capture the camera can be holstered to a clip fastened to your belt, backpack strap, etc. in a split second and releases just as easily for quick use while remaining confidently secure all other times.
A high-quality camera strap is also great if you’re a strap kind of person, this goes dually for wrist straps but that’s more ideal if you plan to have the camera in hand all the time anyway as it’s more for drop protection.
If you’re shooting for media and carrying two camera bodies, a dual camera holster like the Holdfast Moneymaker has been the go-to of the wedding pros for years.
For smaller stuff like a GoPro on a Crane M3, we like to just drop it into one of the outer, exposed pockets on our backpack and clip it to the bag with a spin-lock carabiner.
🍄 Lens Filters (ND, Protection, Effects): First and foremost, if you’re going to be shooting video and want that cinematic smooth looking footage that requires using a slower shutter (learn about shutter speed and the 180 degree rule) speed then you will definitely need an ND filter in most sunlit areas, we recommend a variable ND for convenience.
You can get away without one by increasing the shutter speed but then you get that “reality tv” looking footage rather than the smooth cinematic look, this is great if you prefer that style say for action shots though so maybe it’ll be fine for you.
There are all kinds of cool effect filters you can get too like Cinebloom filters that interact nicely with lighting to create a softer dreamier look but take a look around as you might find some other type of filter that piques your interest. It’s often best to shoot filter free and create effects in post so you always have clean footage just in case.
🍄 Creative / Niche Accessories: There are numerous items you can use in your photography work, such as prisms, a piece of copper pipe, reflective surfaces (like your phone or tablet if you’re shooting with another device) and so many other objects that can be used in creative, interesting ways.
🍄 Compact Camera or Smartphone: Whether or not you’re bringing a full-sized camera with you, it’s always great to have a compact option like the Sony RX100-VII high-end point & shoot camera, Sony ZV-1 II or a high-end smartphone like the iPhone 15 Pro Max, Sony Xperia 1v, Samsung S23 Ultra or Google Pixel 7 Pro.
If you’re looking for great footage straight out of your mobile phone, we’d probably recommend the iPhone 15 Pro Max first and then the Samsung, Google Pixel but all 3 are pretty on par with one another. If you’re more of a professional in the production sense, the Sony Xperia 1v is the best option as it creates more natural looking files similar to Sony alpha cameras plus the user interface is familiar.
If you shoot manual, take postproduction seriously and already shoot Sony alpha, we recommend the Sony Xperia 1V
We do not recommend the Sony to people who aren’t comfortable shooting manually, it’s more geared toward professional style usage and not very point & shoot friendly. Although there is a “basic” and “auto” mode, if you’re only a casual user the more feature rich camera applications (Camera Pro, Cinematography Pro and Video Pro) may feel a bit overwhelming at first, much of which is setup like Sony alpha cameras.
🍄 External Flash or Lighting: While festivals are often a visual feast, lighting conditions can be challenging. An external flash or lighting setup can significantly improve the quality of your shots but flashes can also be intrusive so make sure the time and place is appropriate or if you have expressed permission to do so.
A small video light (the Crane M3 gimbal has one built in for example) is less intrusive than a flash but can still be irritating since it’s like shining a flashlight everywhere, so be respectful. I would say avoid using either of these unless you’re shooting for work.
🍄 Lens Cleaning Kit: Dust and dirt can easily accumulate during festivals, affecting the quality of your shots. A lens cleaning kit with a blower, cleaning solution, microfiber cloth, and lens wipes will help you keep your gear in top condition.
🍄 Respect for Performers and Attendees: While documenting the festival, be respectful of performers, attendees, and event rules. Avoid obstructing views or interfering with the experience of others.
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