How To Prepare For A Summer Festival Abroad When You're Skint

Aloha!

So in the early hours of Thursday morning I'm off to Amsterdam yeaaaaah. I'm going to Lowlands festival (or 'A Campingflight To Lowlands Paradise' if we're being fancy) for the weekend and I.am.so.excited :D

I have been to this festival before at the wee age of 17 so I'm looking forward to re-visiting the area as a 'grown-up'.

Aww naive, pouty nu-ravers back in 2008 :')

Some of my must see bands are: 

TAME IMPALA(!!!)

DJANGO DJANGO

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS

HOT CHIP

LIMP BIZKIT

MAJOR LAZER

PAOLO NUTINI

SLAVES

THE MACCABEES

I can't imagine that I was rolling in dough when I was only 17 but I feel like this time I'm really going to have to scrimp & save. Y'know me though, that doesn't mean it can't still be fun...

Cheap Flights

Skyscanner will be your best friend, you can sign up for e-mail updates and they will let you know when the price goes up or down. It's worth checking a few local-ish airports to see which ones have better flight times. We were a bit unorganised and in the few weeks when we were sorting out tickets etc the flight prices had doubles & now they have almost tripled so it's worth booking them early.

Acquire A Proper Bag.

Last time I went to Lowlands we took suitcases on wheels which seemed like an excellent idea but really it was the worst. Amsterdam is like 95% cobbles so within no time our wheels were square and palms were blistered. I have well and truly learned my lesson so it's rucksacks this time for sure.

I don't have a fancy ergonomic rucksack and I was actually shocked at the price for a decent one, anywhere upwards of £60 which isn't gonna happen on my unemployed budget.

Luckily I have quite a few friends who have been travelling so I've asked if I can borrow one for the weekend instead.

Make Sure You Know The Baggage Limits

We're flying with easyjet and have decided to have one hold bag between four of us & seperate hand luggage. The only reason we have to have hold luggage is because tents are apparently 'dangerous' which means they have foiled my plans to gauge out some eyes with tent pegs :|

Anyway if your baggage is too big or too heavy then they can be sneaky buggers and charge up to £20 per kg which is a bummer. So make sure you're on it and research the limits as all plane service are different.

Get Travel Insurance

I used travelsupermarket.com to find the best deals. It one of those things you really don't want to have to pay for but if anything happens we'll be grateful for it. For four us it worked out at £2.75 each which is nothing for peace of mind.

I also ordered a European health card as mine had expired. They're free to have and it just means that you'll have the same health rights as a citizen in whatever country you are visiting.

Share

We're only going for four days so we hardly need to take multiple packs of baby wipes & a can of dry shampoo each. Plus this will help for our limited baggage. So we're going to share beauty products and probably share a big bottle of rum when we arrive there too. The plan is to go to a supermarket when we arrive so that we can get what we need and don't have to carry it around. 

Last time we went my friend got her mint sauce confiscated at the airport as it was over 100ml and she was mortified-she didn't eat anything without mint sauce ahaha...

Have you ever seen such a symmetrical festival?!

I've been practicing packing light & pondering over plane suitable snacks haha,

Have you ever been to Lowlands or a festival abroad?

Thanks for reading :)

Rachelle xxx