It’s not a coincidence that most music festivals happen during the summer months. College kids are out of school and young professionals are feeling adventurous with vacation time to burn. While summer festivals are a quick success for most music festival promoters, there are a few special considerations brought on by warmer temperatures — most notably, keeping everyone at the festival cool and comfortable.
If you’re hosting a summer festival this year or next, consider the following cool-down options:
Hydration
First and foremost, you should have free water. Say it with me now: you should have free water. There is nothing more demoralizing than being asked to pay a premium for H2O, to be sure, but it can also create a dangerous situation for your music festival attendees.
Think of it this way: do you really trust a bunch of stubborn drunks to pay 5 dollars for water? Do you want to be around if they don’t?
A Calm and Shady Spot
Most festivals have already figured out that even the hardest partiers need a quiet place to unwind every now and again. Why not kill two birds with one stone and make the calm area a place to beat the heat, also? If your location has trees, make that the cooling zone. If not, throw up some canopies, string a few hammocks, purchase some industrial fans and go to town with the decorations.
Speaking from personal experience, the hammock area at Lollapalooza is the only way my pale Irish Catholic skin survived the festival, so I’ll always have a soft spot for people who offer shade.
Emergency Air Conditioning
If you were trying to curate an air-conditioned experience, you wouldn’t be hosting an outdoor music festival, right? Still, music festival promoters should have some sort of backup plan in the (likely) event that someone overheats and needs a cool space immediately. Music festival promoters should look into air-conditioned trailers or even partnering with local businesses to have a place for the truly overheated to chill out.
Beyond being uncomfortable, too much heat exposure can be dangerous for music festival-goers (especially intoxicated ones). To avoid tragedy, make sure you’ve covered all bases with your music festival cool-down strategies.
How are you keeping it cool at your next music festival?