Your Summer Festival Style Guide

Tickets for most summer festivals have sold out by now. The season’s almost upon us! It’s high time to start planning not only your festival budget, the logistics of how you’ll get to the festival, where you’ll sleep and what you’ll eat, but also your ultimate party wardrobe. While you should always prioritise practicality and comfort, festivals are known to be a great arena for showing off your personal style and getting yourself snapped by fashion mag paparazzi and bloggers. The best tip is to plan specific outfits for every day and take spares along. So you might want to start putting money aside each week to fund these if you haven’t already started.

Your wardrobe is likely to differ depending on where you’re travelling this summer for your weekend or week of music and partying. Do your research on what the local climate is usually like at that time of year. You should also consider what kind of festival it is you’re attending and what the general dress code is likely to be like.

You’ll definitely want to pack differently if you’re heading to Spain or Croatia for a dance music festival than if you’re heading north to Finland or Latvia for a folk music festival.

Footwear

Though the general consensus is that there’s no better festival footwear than a pair of wellies, this doesn’t apply to all events. It’s certainly the case for the biggest festivals that gather crowds by the tens of thousands and get muddy fast, and events in countries prone to wet weather. But at smaller events and shorter festivals, particularly those held in warm countries you could actually live to regret wearing wellies as your feet get sweaty. Instead wear a pair of loafers or trainers that give your feet some protection from being stomped on or covered in dirt. They also tend to look much better warn with summery outfits.

Clothing

Again remember the weather before stuffing your bag with completely inappropriate Festival Clothing that will make you either melt or shiver.

For girls the most versatile outfits are dresses paired with leggings that can be taken off weather permitting, and topped off by a loose cardigan that can be buttoned up if cold. This should tick all the right boxes. It’s also a very compact set of clothing. You can accessorise liberally with practical items like sun hats and sunglasses. Shawls and scarves are also fab as these can be act as another layer to wrap up in if you get chilly.

For guys you can’t beat a pair of light chinos and a graphic T-shirt. The trousers may be long but the fabric will let your skin breathe and they will keep your legs clean. Graphic T-shirts are just a great way of expressing your personality in a practical way as they are compact and look fine if creased.

In terms of colour schemes it’s best to avoid lights and pastels as these are likely to get stained fast. Festivals are not the cleanest of places with people brushing against each other all the time, beer glasses flying through the air and other horrid factors not worth mentioning.