Greetings My Fellow Open-Minded,
I'd like to share a handful of tips for those who are planning or considering attending a camping music festival this upcoming season, regarding canopies and tents.
Weather can be a little wild at times with sun scorching days and high winds or rain storms that batter camps and send canopies and tents flying, or leave them broken and unusable. A flying canopy can cause a lot of damage or seriously injure someone, not to mention leave you without adequate shade and shelter for the remainder of your stay.
✅️1. Make sure to securely tie down tents and canopies with longer and strong stakes and bring a mallet.
✅️2. Use sandbags, heavy coolers, or water jugs to help tie down canopies, using all the tie downs points. Keep as many of your luggage items and bags in your tent to help weigh them down, distributing the weight on all sides. Flying canopies and or tents can seriously injury people not too mention it sucks to lose or wreck a tent.
✅️3. When leaving camp unattended or when winds start to pick up, First, lower the canopy, then take the top off, especially if you are leaving camp. Store items that need to stay dry inside tents and vehicles. ** if only one or two people remain and you have multiple canopies, lower most of them before the majority of group leaves.
✅️4. Check stakes and tie downs every day. Stakes often come loose.
During the storms of 2022 Sonic Bloom in Colorado, our crew lowered our canopies all the way and then hid from the rain underneath: We lovingly called it Tiny Town!
We had 5 canopies last year for our large group all arranged into a little "house." A couple suffered a broken pole and were unrepairable by the end - but lasted our whole trip, and we were still able to fold them down and take them back with us rather than leaving them in the giant pile. Mine survived like a champ!
Remember: Pack it in, pack it out!
The canopy I brought is an hexagon-shaped Coleman brand. It has 6 legs and survived the whole weekend! Additionally, it came with mesh sides that provide shade while also letting air circulate: which kept the temperature a bit lower than using tapestries.
I have had my Coleman canopy for 4 years: giving us shelter for many camping trips and several festivals and ready to take on all the festivals to come!
Coleman Screened Canopy Tent with Instant Setup | Back Home Screenhouse Sets Up in 60 Seconds https://a.co/d/3ToGPiE - Get this version - not the newer version - the review for the newer version & the larger version seem to reflect that it is not a sturdy as the 12x10 in the link above! The 15x13' uses a different mechanism - which reviews have depicted as not holding up well in the rain.
- It's a bit more expensive, but the extra legs and mesh walls help secure it with high winds: so it won't end up being a 1 event only use: as long as you follow the tips above.
To reiterate:
- Securely stake down tents and canopies
- Using sandbags or other heavy items to reinforce tie-downs.
- Lower and remove tops during high winds and before you leave camp.
- Check and reinforce stakes and tie-downs each day as stakes often come loose.
- Get a high quality canopy!
Happy festival-ing! 😊
Shine on,
Dom