Care for a Festival Tent

The word 'care' and phrase 'festival tent' don't always seem to sit comfortably together. The greenfield environment might not be an Arctic winter but your tent may well still get a battering from the British weather, its occupants and other festival goers.

Prepare the pitch. You need a relatively even piece of ground on a slight incline, located in an area of the site where there is less risk of the ground becoming waterlogged or flooded. Once you have identified a suitable pitch, large enough for your tent and outside living space, you will need to make sure that the ground is cleared of any stones and small twigs. These can easily puncture lightweight groundsheets if not removed from the site in advance.

Use a heavy duty protective groundsheet. It's easy to damage thin groundsheets and on wet ground any rip will allow water into the tent from below. A heavy duty groundsheet can be placed under the sewn in groundsheet of the inner tent to protect it from potential damage. At around 1kg in weight it is not too brudensome an addition to your group's camping equipment.

Mark your guy ropes. Most tents have some form of guy ropes and these can be a potential trip hazard, especially during hours of darkness. Not only is there a risk of injury but a tent offers almost no resistance to a human body falling onto it. Trying to sleep in a tent with broken poles or a torn flysheet is no fun on a wet night. Keep your pegging points relatively close to the tent and tie a white piece of cloth to each guy rope and you can minimise the chance of such a disaster.

Dry out a wet tent before packing it away.. Although modern tents do not rot in the same way as old cotton tents, it is still a bad mistake to pack away a tent when it is still wet. Mud and water will all be damaging. If you have no choice but to pack up a wet tent then you should always dry it out and clean it once you reach home.

Use a waterproofing solution and seam sealer. If your tent has had a bit of use or is a few years old then its useful life can normally be prolonged by ensuring that seams and fabric are still watertight through the use of a seam sealing compound and waterproofing solution.

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