Summer Concerts and Festivals Tips

Every summer one of the things I most look forward to are the music festivals and concerts. Nothing beats listening to some of your favourite artists, and discovering new ones, under the nice warm sun! Fun fact for you all, the majority of outdoor concerts I’ve been to, it was pouring rain haha! So my tips will definitely involve some necessities just in case it rains, like it did for me numerous times!

1. Arrive Early

• There are many reasons why you would want to arrive early. Sometimes tickets and barcodes just won’t cooperate, and the process to verify that your tickets are indeed authentic, will take some time. You definitely want to budget some extra time so you won’t miss any part of the show.
• General Admission is pretty common, which means that there are no reserved seatings or areas. If you want to be as close to the stage as possible, be sure to arrive early to secure your spot! Remember to get all your drinks/snacks and washroom trips before entering a general admission area, since you will find it very difficult to leave the area once crowds start filling up behind you. Nor would you want to leave your sweet spot anyways 🙂
• I always include a good amount of time pre-show to look around the merchandise stands and to enjoy my surroundings (and take a million photos). There are usually some cool booths and games to check out in addition to merchandise stands.

2. Dress Appropriately 

• After many many years of experience, I have learned that my tallest pair of wedges may look good with my outfit, but my feet just hurts too much throughout the day/night and I’m not enjoying myself as much.You will also walk a lot at festivals, a pair of flats, slip-ons, sandals, or sneakers will be your best friend. Just be careful with sandals as you will have people accidentally stepping on your bare toes when you’re in a large crowd, ouch!
• A cute dress, short-sleeve/sleeveless tops, shorts (crochet or bright prints are my favourites!), and also a light sweater when it gets chilly at night. If you’re going for more than a day, I would bring a few extra pieces of clothing to change into.
• A small or medium sized crossbody bag or backpack. Not only am I able to have free hands, but I can put everything (wallet, camera, etc.) in there and not worry about it. I prefer to bring a medium sized bag compared to a small one since it will be big enough to carry a tour program and any other goodies I buy.
• Bring a pair of trusty sunglasses!

3. Be Prepared For Rain

• As I mentioned, many of the concerts and festivals I’ve attended, it was raining the entire time! An umbrella is good when you’re waiting for the acts to start, but you don’t want to be “THAT PERSON” that blocks everyone behind you with an umbrella. Solution? A rain poncho! I kid you not, a rain poncho has been the best thing I brought with me to these concerts, and the best piece of advice I can give anyone.

This photo was taken at a Colbie Caillat and Christina Perri concert last summer. It was raining the entire time and luckily the venue also sold ponchos. It was really fun for everyone to wear rain ponchos and singing so loudly together. As you can tell, I’m all smiles in this photo so I most certainly had a great time in the rain!

4. Lastly

• Bring hand sanitizer and wipes if you’re not comfortable with outdoor washrooms (which is usually code for pretty dirty washrooms lol).
• Keep a good amount of cash with you, a lot of times the card machines were down or did not have strong signals for the transaction to go through. Grabbing some cash in advance can save you time to line up at an atm and at the merchandise stand AGAIN. Also, many of these atms charge around $1.50-$2.50 service charge.
• Sunscreen! Especially for those blazing sunny afternoons!
• Charge up all your phones, cameras, portable battery, but try to enjoy the music tech-free too 🙂

Hope these tips will help make your concert and festival experience that much smoother and a great experience. I have a couple festivals and concerts coming up this summer, and I’m beyond stoked! Have fun everyone 🙂

 

*Featured image in this post kindly provided by my good friend Elizabeth since almost all my outdoor concert experiences have been in the rain haha! Check out her blog as she does lots of music and concert reviews! I love going to concerts with her ♥