What will I sleep on at IoW/Roskilde/Bestival/V?

There are many schools of thought on this one. Some people will attend a music festival fully intending to get so wasted each day that they will be able to sleep anywhere. Good luck to these people – I’ll see you in the first aid tent. I want a bed – obviously not as comfortable as my bed at home but more than tolerable for 3-4 nights. As I see it, there are three options: 1) the typical inch thick camping mattress or similar, 2) the airbed [and variations on a lilo] and 3) the camp bed.

They each have their benefits and their drawbacks. A camping mattress is compact, easy to carry and will even inflate itself while you get on with more pressing matters. On the downside, festival camping areas are not like regular campsites and depending on when you arrive you may not have your choice of camping spot. This could mean you end up sleeping on extremely lumpy ground or a dip that collects a lot of water when it rains. Either way, you will end up cursing the poor little mattress - it will offer no protection against either problem.

The airbed, on the other hand, could be your salvation if rain is on the menu. It will keep you up and out of the water and will provide a cushion against uneven terrain, but there are other pitfalls. People sharing an airbed will find they occasionally bounce their partner out of bed or into the wall of the tent. You may also find that airbed loses its main ingredient overnight and by morning you are sleeping on the lumpy ground anyway. The final insult could be that you haul your kingsize double-height air bed a very long way to the ideal campsite only to find that you’ve left the pump in your car. Or worse…your flat in Aberdeen. If this happens you better start making friends with your neighbors, quickly!

This brings me to my preferred option: the camp cot. Though it conjures up visions of African safaris and TA training weekends, the camp cot could be your salvation. I will admit that the cheaper ones can be difficult to put together as they require some brute force to pop the legs into position. But the benefits cannot be ignored:

You sleep suspended above the ground so as long as the tent is pitched in a fairly level spot you could be sleeping on chunky gravel and it won’t matter.
If it rains you are up off the (increasingly soggy) ground. Which brings me to my next point…

(Assuming it’s still raining, this is Britain after all) During the day you can put your things on top of the cot to keep them somewhat organised and lessen the chance of water coming through the groundsheet.

One minus – and it will be a major one for some people – is that the typical camp cot is not built for sexual activity, vigorous or otherwise. Ignore this warning and you may end up with a giant split in your bed. Put the sleeping bag on the floor and ‘do the business’ if you must but don’t hurt the camp cot.

Personally, I will be investing in a top of the range camp cot this year. £25 worth of heaven.