Festivals are great fun, but getting to and leaving them is a fresh hell most of us haven’t had to experience for the last two years.
Even if you managed to go on a camping staycay over the pandemic, chances are you drove to your pitch so it didn’t matter how heavy things were. Comfort was king, and your car’s boot was there to do the heavy lifting.
Packing for a festival is an art, whether you’re arriving by public transport or hauling your things from the car park to your tent. Every ounce counts; take it from someone who’s racked up the wristbands over the years.
When you’re pulling muscles you never even knew existed under the weight of a full backpack, camping chair, air bed, gas cooking stove and camping light, you’ll rue every extra piece of festival clothing or bright lippie you added to the burden.
But they’re not to blame! After all, sequins and glitter are the core pillars of festival dressing. Besides, you’ll need them as an emotional buoyancy aid by the last night of the event, when the spirit is strong but the body is flagging.
Instead of sacrificing them, it’s time to zero in on other ways to lighten the load.
A festival tent, while an irrefutable essential, can carry unnecessary weight in extra compartments, second layers (or skins), ground sheets and cumbersome poles that are more suited to a weekend of tranquil family camping rather than festival debauchery.
Yet there are tents out there comfortable enough for a weekend of living that won’t trigger an existential crisis when you’re carrying them to your pitch.
We’ve listed the best options below, all around 5kg (about the same as a bag of potatoes, dumbbells or an Italian Greyhound dog), which should be manageable to carry along with the rest of your festival gear.
Before we dive in, a quick note on festival responsibility. According to the Association of Independent Festivals, around a quarter of a million tents are abandoned at the end of British music festivals annually. Although volunteers collect them and they’re recycled if possible, that’s an enormous amount of unnecessary waste, not to mention your precious cash lost.
Tents are a sound summer investment, and with good care will see you through a good few festivals, not to mention spontaneous country trips when you fancy a cheap mini break.
With landfills at tipping point and everyone doing their best to avoid single use plastic, it’s never been more crucial to stick by the universal festival motto: leave no trace.
Save your muscles for lifting cold pints of Brothers cider, and shop the best lightweight festival tents here.
The size and dimensions of this ultra-compact tent will test the very boundaries of your credulity: it’s twice as tall and wide as a pint glass (the only instrument we had to hand) - 53 x 17cm packed.
But have faith, and you shall be rewarded; it morphs into a tent with an entryway so tall that at 5”6, we were able to stand completely upright. Quite remarkable when you consider it weighs just 2.44kg packed.
Unusually, the inner sleeping compartment needs to be built first; it’s held up using intuitive multi-bar colour-coded poles that slot into each corner of the compartment with minimal grunting and brow-mopping on your part.
Once that’s securely pegged down, slip the 15D ripstop nylon flysheet over the top, attach one more pole to the top of the porch, et voila! An unbelievably spacious tent that’s big enough for two, but comfier with just one sleeper.
Cons are few and far between, but one clanger is the lack of groundsheet in the living area - still, its absence is one of the reasons why this NEMO tent is so light and packs down so small. Take a spare groundsheet or piece of tarp if you don’t want to roll out of your sleeping bag straight onto grass, but if it rains, you may be better off without as an unsewn groundsheet has an unfortunate tendency to collect puddles of water.
Given its size, double entry doors, and abundance of helpful pockets for fairy lights and essentials, this is an incredibly well-designed tent for all uses, in almost all seasons barring the coldest of winters. We tested it during 40mph winds and hard rain (AKA, classic British camping conditions), and it held its own against the elements beautifully.
It’s pricey but if you go to festivals often, it’s a winner.
Fashioned from a single skin with light fibreglass poles, this tent may look similar to kids’ crayon drawings but is worthy of festival living. It may only be one layer, but taped seams and a 1500 mm water-resistant hydrostatic head will keep all but the heaviest of downpours at bay. There are also air vents to allow air to circulate so things don’t get too stuffy and a sewn-in groundsheet will keep insects locked outside so you can snooze in peace.
While it claims to sleep four, in reality, when you factor in your backpack, shoes and airbed, you’ll likely fit two people in the teepee. That said, for a solo sleeper it’ll be bliss with plenty of space to spread out.
Pop up tents seem like a good idea at the time - practically set up in two seconds flat, what’s not to like? Well, we’ll tell you. The pack up can be like wrestling with a demon made of tarpaulin or requiring a masters degree in origami.
No such trouble with Decathlon’s time-saving design, which promises easy dismantling as well as construction. It’s an eco-design too, thanks to the greige and rope dyeing processes (leaving them in their raw state sidestepping the need for harmful chemicals).
A handy thing to have in the cupboard for hiking and fishing trips as well as weekends away, the single internal chamber has space for two but we think it’ll be more comfortable for one sleeper - and it should be easy to carry solo at 4.7kg.
Best of all, if you’re trying to get a few hours kip between bands, the blackout fabric means you can expect to enjoy 99 per cent darkness inside, even in broad daylight.
In a world where all tents seem to be a variation of green or blue, opt for something that stands out - if only to help you spot your temporary home in the festival’s sprawling tent city.
Available in a vibrant violet hue (although white and two shades of green are also available), this lightweight tent is low and wide, offering enough space for one to sleep or sit cross legged inside with a max height of 100cm. It’s dinky at just 1.8kg and the flysheet offers great wraparound, keeping your inner tent protected from the weather, whatever the conditions are like outside.
Don’t underestimate the glorious ability to stand upright in your tent: we’ve been bent double trying to change in our fair share of tents over the years to know that this feature is priceless. Teepee-style tents, while offering plenty of glamping vibes, are notorious for their weight - which is why this one, at just 4.6kg, is such a find. Why so light? It’s down to the single support pole and light fabrics rather than heavy canvas as seen on other tepee tents.
Ideal for a couple or a pair of friends, you should have no trouble splitting the weight until you find the perfect festival pitch. It’s an old school tent with plenty of modern features: waterproof fly and groundsheets and a hydrostatic head to keep the elements from your living quarters.
Weighing a sprightly 4.15kg, the 2018 Omega 250 basecamp tent may be designed for expeditions but it serves perfectly well as your festival HQ too.
Average pitch time is just 12 minutes, and for once the listing as a two-man lives up to the hype - thanks to the compartment design. The zipped sleeping compartment is separated from the large living area giving you dedicated spaces to sleep and change clothes so you always look your festival best. It’s a necessary addition if you want to keep the mess to a minimum and sleep in a mud-free zone.
At nearly half the weight of Decathlon’s pop-up tent, this 2.5kg is an attractive proposition for first-time festival-goers; but make sure you watch an instructional video showing you how to fold it away after use.
The design is kept lightweight thanks to a single skin and fibreglass poles. While this style of tent claims to sleep two people, from experience, we say it’s more of a single-berth situation - especially when you factor in clothes, shoes, wellies and your other festival bits.
There are internal pockets to help you organise essentials like your toothbrush, wallet and contact lens kit, and plenty of mesh panels to allow air to circulate without letting rain in. Hydrafort fabric on the flysheet acts as a further shield to stormy skies. It packs down to 75 x 10cm.
If you’re looking for a roof over your head for just a few days, Coleman’s Darwin tent is an attractive option - mostly thanks to the fact that when packed it weighs just 2.8kg and measures 46 x 15.5 x 15.5cm, slightly bigger than a 10-inch iPad.
Once constructed though, the spacious interior has enough room to insert a double airbed. It has plenty of other magic tricks up its sleeve, from a roomy porch area to store your stuff and shoes, as well as a place to sit and relax before you head out to the festival.
Pitch time, it’s not as fast as a pop-up tent but it’s still fairly quick, using a ring and pin pole attachment to get the extended dome structure up and ready to party.
To say this tent can fit up to six people is a stretch of the imagination, unless you’re counting your childhood set of Sylvanian Families. It does, however, offer plenty of space for two but with no outside area of porch, you’ll have to be packing light or storing your stuff elsewhere to be comfortable inside.
That said, it has lots going for it, from the fast set-up time of 10min (even if you’re on your own) and 2.72kg in packed weight. It’s also waterproof and has factory-sealed seams to protect against the infamous British weather.
The inner tent is the star of the show here, with a shorter second layer, the flysheet, protecting the mesh panels from the elements. Also available in forest green.
A pop-up tent with added light power, Gorilla Tents’ Emoji patterned tent is a thing of real beauty. Not only can it be set up single handedly in less than five minutes, but it’s a treat to carry at just 3.9kg in a bag with carry handles so you can sling it over your shoulder, or fasten to the loops of your backpack. The double lined tent offers ample protection against the infamous British weather and they’re more spacious than they seem, able to sleep three people or one with baggage. As for the design, well it’s a viral post waiting to happen.
The best thing about this tent is that it comes with a Tent Finder Controller which will light up your temporary home when you’re close by. Handy on your way back from the main stage in the dark.
It will be closed for five days.
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