How Do People Survive at Festivals?

[Lexx23]

At festivals, how do people go to the bathroom and stuff? Totally serious. How do people go get drunk? I can't have more than a few beers without having to pee. I also get tired standing after like a few hours. Totally confused...

 

[SKL]

Some people make truly elaborate preparations, with multiple tents, food, alcohol, living, relatively, in luxury for the weekend (second only to various premium arrangements usually offered at festivals ranging from cabins to RV spaces, etc.) Some people wing it and just arrive with the clothes on their backs. The crowds are huge, it is filthy, and a weekend of dancing, drug-taking, drinking, and so on can be physically arduous. So how do people "survive?" Not even exactly hyperbole as deaths do happen with some regularity (thankfully regularly rare, but certainly extant), mostly from drug-related issues. But how do people put up with the infelicities of practical stuff like toileting?

Well, first of all a lot of planning goes into the logistics of bathrooms, etc., which is not to say that the bathrooms are not invariably absolutely repugnant. The bigger festivals do an impressive job, however, of keeping such things running 24/7. Food is either bought from vendors (exorbitantly) or from festival goers ("heady veggie burritos! heady veggie burritos!") or brought from home, many festivals allow propane grills and the like but only the smallest and lowest key ones, for obvious reasons, allow open fires. All of this, of course, in the backdrop of what's usually an epic bacchanal of drugs and booze. Organizing hippies is like herding the proverbial cats. Chaos is the order of the day, but there is usually just enough order for people to get by. There are seedy and dangerous elements among festival goers but in many cases the goodwill of strangers can be found and is a great help.

Fundamentally there are two approaches, as I mentioned before: going meticulously organized, or winging it; not so much a dichotomy but a continuum, one's place in the continuum often is strongly correlated with one's relationship with drugs (from casual recreational use to abject degeneracy.) Anyway, people make do, it's really a rather amazing thing, so many people living together in a small place, with orgiastic excess being the order of the day, and yet for the majority of festival-goers, arguably even the vast majority, it goes off without a hitch.

There is often, though, towards the end of the festival, a sense of increasing chaos and approaching the edge. This is not helped by the drugs wearing off (or repeatedly re-dosed), lack of sleep, rumors of busts and overdoses, and often increased law enforcement presence. Taking this from the individual to the aggregate level. it's probably a good thing that most festivals are winding down by that point.

Anyway how do people survive? Planning, if not theirs, then the event planner's. The logistic issues are huge, and to be honest given the circumstances surrounding most festivals often surprisingly well done.

I realize I didn't give you a lot in the way of specific tips. I don't have many. In my festival-going days I was a "wing it" sort of guy, if going alone; if going as part of a crew I was never the best person for logistics, we usually all chipped in but had one or two people (usually a woman or a couple) "herd the cats" as it were. The shopping list could go on forever, starting with tent, sleeping bag, cooler, food and drink, folding chairs, several changes of clothes (essential as it seems almost invariably to rain at least once at most festivals in my part of the country), hygiene supplies, sunscreen, first aid, etc, etc, etc. (of course drugs, booze, paraphernalia ...)

Anyway this thread might be fun if people want to discuss their own practices, stories, advice, shopping lists, etc.

I am tempted to move this thread to one of the music forums but realize that it is specific neither to Non-Electronic nor to Electronic Music, so will keep it here for nowl.

 

[One Thousand Words]

Port-a-loos are these amazing inventions, sort of like a phone box, but instead of a phone there is a toilet seat. It you need to piss you aim for the hole, if you need to poop you sit on the seat.

Many of the doofs i attend you need to be self sufficient. Often the toilet is a pit dug into the ground with a oil drum perched above it. If you are lucky there is a hesshion cloth pegged around it for privacy. If you poop you need to sprinkle lime down the pit. If you need to pee you go behind a tree.

 

[thujone]

i don't do overnight stays but always go in cargo shorts so i can stuff a light rain jacket and change of socks in the big pockets then a small burner phone and cash/tradeables in the smaller pockets, there's water and food and portapotties at the venue so needs are covered. it's a bit of heft but not enough to encumber, usually someone is willing to let me stash jacket and socks in a purse in exchange for food so mainly i just rely on the phone to keep track of who is where

 

[Mr Crowley]

if you drink hard liquor you will pee less and get more drunk.
as for standing for extended periods of time, gummy bears are nice, easy to eat and the sugar keeps you going. you could also sit down tho.
(most of the people you see dancing the night away are on stimulants)