Festivals are great fun, but getting to and leaving them is a fresh hell most of us are only reminded of at the start of the season.
Even if you managed to go on a camping staycay before the summer, chances are you drove to your pitch so it didn’t matter how heavy things were. Comfort was king, and your car’s boot was there to do the heavy lifting.
Packing for a festival is an art, whether you’re rocking up on public transport or hauling things from the car park to your tent. Every ounce counts; take it from someone who’s racked up the wristbands over the years.
When you’re pulling muscles you never even knew existed under the weight of a full backpack, camping chair, air bed, gas cooking stove and camping light, you’ll rue every extra piece of festival clothing or bright lippie you added to the pile.
But they’re not to blame! After all, sequins and glitter are the core pillars of festival dressing. You’ll need them as an emotional buoyancy aid by the last night when the spirit is strong but the body is flagging. Instead of sacrificing them, it’s time to zero in on other ways to lighten the load.
A festival tent, while an irrefutable essential, can carry unnecessary weight in extra compartments, second layers (or skins), ground sheets and cumbersome poles that are more suited to a weekend of tranquil family camping rather than festival debauchery.
Yet there are tents out there comfortable enough for a weekend of living that won’t trigger an existential crisis when you’re carrying them to your pitch.
We’ve listed the best options below, all around 5kg (about the same as a bag of potatoes, dumbbells, or, an Italian Greyhound dog), which should be manageable to carry along with the rest of your festival gear.
Responsible camping: Leave no trace
Before we dive in, a quick note on festival responsibility. According to the Association of Independent Festivals, around a quarter of a million tents are abandoned at the end of British music festivals annually. Although volunteers will take them down and recycle if possible, that’s an enormous amount of unnecessary waste, not to mention your precious cash lost.
Tents are a sound summer investment, and with good care will see you through a good few festivals, not to mention spontaneous country trips when you fancy a cheap mini break.
With landfills at tipping point and everyone doing their best to avoid single use plastic, it’s never been more crucial to stick by the universal festival motto: leave no trace.
Save your muscles for lifting cold pints of Brothers cider, and shop the best lightweight festival tents here.
See our favourites below
Naturehike Mongar Ultralight 20D Silicone Backpacking Tent
- Weight: 2.1kg
- Dimensions: 210 x 135 x 105cm
In a world where all tents look the same, opt for something that stands out - if only to help you spot your temporary home in the festival’s sprawling tent city.
Available in a neon, can’t-miss-it green, this lightweight tent is low and wide, offering enough space for one person to sleep or sit cross-legged inside with a max height of 100cm.
It’s dinky at just 2.1kg and the flysheet offers superb wraparound, keeping your inner tent protected from the weather whatever the conditions are like outside. Designed for cycling and hiking, it performs well on the festival field too.
Buy now £139.00, Amazon
Decathlon 2 Person Blackout Pop-Up Tent
Best for: easy set up and take down
Pop up tents seem like a good idea at the time - practically set up in two seconds flat, what’s not to like? Well, we’ll tell you. The pack up can be like wrestling with a demon made of tarpaulin or requiring a masters degree in origami.
No such trouble with Decathlon’s time-saving design, which promises easy dismantling as well as construction. It’s an eco-design too, thanks to the greige and rope dyeing processes (leaving them in their raw state sidestepping the need for harmful chemicals).
A handy thing to have in the cupboard for hiking and fishing trips as well as weekends away, the single internal chamber has space for two but we think it’ll be more comfortable for one sleeper - and it should be easy to carry solo at 4.7kg.
Best of all, if you’re trying to get a few hours kip between bands, the blackout fabric means you can expect 99 per cent darkness inside, even in broad daylight.
Buy now £129.99, Decathlon
Coleman Unisex Adult, Darwin 2 Tent
- Weight: 2.8kg
- Packed dimensions: 46 x 15.5 x 15.5cm
If you’re looking for a roof over your head for just a few days, Coleman’s Darwin tent is an attractive option - thanks mostly to the fact that, when packed, it weighs just 2.8kg and measures 46 x 15.5 x 15.5cm, only slightly bigger than a 10-inch iPad.
Once constructed though, the spacious interior has enough room to insert a double airbed. It has plenty of other magic tricks up its sleeve, from a roomy porch area to store your stuff and shoes, as well as a place to sit and relax before you head out to the festival.
Pitch time, it’s not as fast as a pop-up tent but it’s still fairly quick, using a ring and pin pole attachment to get the extended dome structure up and ready to party.
Buy now £72.12, Amazon
Eurohike Teepee Tent
- Weight: 4.7kg
- Dimensions: 300 x 300 x 210cm
Don’t underestimate the glorious ability to stand upright in your tent: we’ve been bent double trying to change in our fair share of tents over the years to know that such a feature is priceless.
Teepee-style tents, while offering plenty of glamping vibes, are notorious for their weight - which is why this one, at just 4.7kg, is such a find. Why so light? It’s down to the single support pole and light fabrics rather than heavy canvas as seen on other tepee tents.
Ideal for a couple or a pair of friends, you should have no trouble splitting the weight until you find the perfect festival pitch. It’s an old-school tent with plenty of modern features: waterproof fly and groundsheets and a hydrostatic head to keep the elements from your living quarters.
Buy now £84.00, Amazon
Vango Omega 250 tent
- Weight: 4.05kg
- Type: tunnel tent
Weighing a sprightly 4.15kg, the 2018 Omega 250 basecamp tent may be designed for expeditions but it serves perfectly well as your festival HQ too.
Average pitch time is just 12 minutes, and for once the listing as a two-man lives up to the hype - thanks to the compartment design. The zipped sleeping compartment is separated from the large living area giving you dedicated spaces to sleep and change clothes so you always look your festival best. It’s a necessary addition if you want to keep the mess to a minimum and sleep in a mud-free zone.
Buy now £225.00, Cotswold Outdoor
Regatta Malawi 2 Pop-Up Tent
- Best for: lightweight option
- Weight: 2.5kg
This 2.5kg is an attractive proposition for first-time festival-goers, but make sure you watch the instructional video in our intro showing you how to fold it away after use.
The design is kept lightweight thanks to a single skin and fibreglass poles. While this style of tent claims to sleep two people, from experience, we say it’s more of a single-berth situation - especially when you factor in clothes, shoes, wellies and your other festival bits. The single-skin means this is an option best kept for warmer weather only.
There are internal pockets to help you organise essentials like your toothbrush, wallet and contact lens kit, and plenty of mesh panels to allow air to circulate without letting rain in. Hydrafort fabric on the flysheet acts as a further shield to stormy skies. It packs down to 75 x 10cm.
Buy now £69.99, Very
Clostnature Waterproof Camping Tent
- Weight: 2.37kg
- Packed dimensions: 40 x 17 x 17cm
To claim this tent can sleep six is a stretch of the imagination, unless you’re counting your childhood set of Sylvanian Families. It does, however, offer plenty of space for two but with no outside area of porch, you’ll have to pack light or store your stuff elsewhere to be comfortable inside.
That said, it has lots going for it, from the fast set-up time of 10min (even on your own) and just 2.37kg in packed weight. It’s also waterproof and has factory-sealed seams to protect against the infamous British weather.
The inner tent is the star of the show here, with a shorter second layer, the flysheet, protecting the mesh panels from the elements. Also available in forest green.
Buy now £44.99, Amazon
Gorilla Tents Emoji Night Glow
Best for: squiffy festival revellers
A pop-up tent with added light power, Gorilla Tents’ Emoji patterned tent is a thing of real beauty.
Not only can it be set up single handedly in less than five minutes, but it’s a treat to carry at just 3.9kg in a bag with carry handles so you can sling it over your shoulder, or fasten to the loops of your backpack. The double-lined tent is 100 per cent waterproof and features a 90s smiley face pattern that’s bound to evoke admiring looks from your neighbours.
We liked the fact that the inner tent is slightly separated from the outer at the front door, creating an alcove of sorts to keep muddy boots and anything else you’d rather not have rolling around inside with you.
Aside from the spot-it-a-mile-off pattern (which also glows in the dark), the design also comes with a AA battery-operated remote control light which works from up to 50m away so you can find your tent even in the early hours of a festival when your coordination and navigation will probably be impaired. Genius.
Buy now £39.99, Gorilla Tents
