Developing

Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Best Glastonbury Festival gear 2011

    It's not long now until Glastonbury kicks off and with it a summer full of festivals. You've bought your tickets, you've cadged yourself a lift but what you could always do with is that little bit of extra kit to keep you comfortable in your three days out there in the elements.

    As ever, Pocket-lint has been thinking ahead so that you don't have to. After all, you've a schedule of which bands you'd like to see to write down and let go to pot the minute you sink your first alco-beer. So, here are some A1 ideas of gadgets, bits of tech and camping kit to take along for the rock 'n' roll ride.

    Petzl Tikka Plus 2 headtorch (£39.99)

    Festivals can be dark places, and guess what? That Eurohike tent you bought for £20 in Tesco isn't a one-off. The admittedly expensive Tikka Plus 2 headtorch from Petzl is our favourite - it's very bright (50 lumens), its red and white LEDs reach 35 metres, and the battery lasts 140 hours.

    Light My Fire Spork (£1.95) or Mealkit (£14.95)

    If doughnuts and warm lager don't appeal, and your budget doesn't stretch to £8 per hotdog, take your own food. Then let the magic of Spork takeover and deliver you delights like damp cake, tinned fish and warm-ish soup.

    It cuts, it pokes, it ladels - though if you're going eat a proper meal, you kinda need two Sporks - and this complete mealkit that comprises two plates, cup, box and a board-come-colander. Now if they could only sort out a table and set of dining chairs to go with it, you'd be laughing.


    Festival App (free)

    It doesn't really matter which you're going to but most festivals have their own apps these days if only to save them the printing costs of making programmes and guides for over 100,000 people. You're probably best to download the thing before you go given that reception, let along mobile broadband, might be a tricky thing to get hold of while you're actually there.

    Do be warned though that any app that requires data to work is probably best not relied upon. You can get the Glastonbury 2011 app courtesy of Orange for iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia just here.


    FreeLoader Classic (£39.99)

    With apps, maps and chaps all demanding your smartphone-based attention at the modern festival, running out of juice before the event has actually kicked-off is a social faux pas akin to nakedness.

    OK, so maybe not at Glasto, but it's nice to have a 124g FreeLoader on hand; it uses solar power to charge-up its eight-hour battery before attaching to all manner of gadgets. Also puts two hours' life into an iPad, but don't, just … don't!

    Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone (£69.95)

    The idea of strapping a battery to an iPhone seems crazy, but the Mophie Juice Pack Air acts as a protective case and merely adds a bit of chunk to the Apple gadget. More importantly, fully charged it adds around 80 percent to the iPhone's life.

    If you rely on text messages and don't surf the net during festivals, it could get you through the whole weekend without having to waste time at an Orange charge-tent. Available for both the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

    Griffin USB Reserve Power (£35)

    If you don't want to have to think about juicing-up your smartphone while you're on-site, this recharge pack might suit, especially for those without an Apple flavoured handset. Not much bigger that a couple of USB sticks, the Griffin USB Reserve Power takes around an hour to fill-up from any USB slot, ready to restore about 50 per cent of a smartphone's charge a few days later.

    Of course, if you'd rather, you could always just admit what you need a buy yourself a spare battery for your mobile phone. Just don't forget to charge it up before you go.

    X-mini Happy MP3 player & speaker (£50)

    Extravagant, perhaps, but this tacky-sounding gadget is one of our favourite festival frivolities. Acting as a regular MP3 player playing tunes from a 2GB SD Card, when twisted it concertinas out into a quite brilliant-sounding speaker.

    Just about pocket sized, the X-Mini Happy also able to play tunes from any MP3 player or phone using a retractable mini-jack. Make sure that if you're going to go down that route that you take along one of the power options above or those night time beats back at camp are going to cost you your talk time the next day.

    Aerobie AeroPress Coffee Maker (£32)

    Brown mud with water. As well as being a description of Worthy Farm after the festivities, it's also the state of the farm's coffee. Skip the queues and brew your own with the portable Aerobie AeroPress filter coffee machine; just add hot water, wait 30 seconds, and… curse your lack of muffins.

    Best served with biscuits, early morning bacon sandwich and boiling water from a chimney-shaped...

    Kelly Kettle (£42)

    The Kelly Kettle is a 2.5 pint, lightweight, aluminium camping kettle. (That's around 1.4 litres in new money.) It's basically a double walled chimney which stores the water in its wall cavity hence giving it a large surface area in contact with the sides of the flue.

    What you do is fill the bottom with twigs (or whatever), light it and the heat boils the water in minutes. Not all festival sites allow fires but you're not likely to get rumbled with the small blaze contained in the base of the kettle. Keep 'em peeled, though, eh.


    TravelJohn Disposable Urinal 3-pack (£5.45)

    In all our visits to Glastonbury we've not once persuaded our other halves to use the She-Pees, yet the TravelJohn is getting us excited. Have you seen the queues for the loos when the headline acts are on?

    Sold with the slightly alarming 'leak proof!' claim, TravelJohn takes the pee and turns it into solid matter instantly. Nice. Very handy if you can't face a 3am trip to the toilet.


    © copyright Pocket-lint 2011
     

    58 comments

    • Captain Fantastic  •  11 months ago
      Far cry from when i went in 1982. A quarter of Lebanese, a tent and a sleeping bag was all that was required. Lived on Veg curry and rice and no beer. Except for the last night. After dropping a tab and a half of Acid we bought the whole of the flap jack stand at sun up. What memories ( well a few anyway).
      • upinsmoke63 11 months ago
        first time i went in 1983 i did,nt even have a tent but plenty of acid and sticky black slept in chrishna tent .went to stonehenge the following year good times
      • Gotta lol 11 months ago
        haha :) good times!!!
      • The Dark Knight 11 months ago
        82' California sun....................
    • Elusive jim  •  11 months ago
      a couple of fake handbags with with those exploding ink things to cover the thieving @#$% who like to check peoples tents.
      • LJ 11 months ago
        Better to travel light and leave the nickables at home.
      • jeffery 11 months ago
        what are those exploding ink things?
      • LJ 11 months ago
        Better to travel light and leave the nickables at home.
    • James  •  11 months ago
      Worst article ever! Just make sure you have a pair of wellies, toliet paper and a few drinks and you will be fine
      • A Yahoo! User 11 months ago
        And a hep c shot too ;)
      • A Yahoo! User 11 months ago
        And a hep c shot too ;)
    • IAN  •  11 months ago
      beared theory kicks off the festival in may. Glastonbury was ok till radio 1 stuck their oar in and over popularized it. tent beer money waterproof socks thats all you need the rest is there. ipod ffs theres music all around you.
    • DILLIGAF  •  11 months ago
      I've always wanted to try the Goan Fish Curry stand that's there every year.....but common sense dictates...... every year!

      I'm sure it's lovely, but......it takes guts to try that, in a field, with only longdrops for emergencies!
      • LJ 11 months ago
        I'd rather pay a donation and use the eco toilets than the portaloos. The vegetarian food on the green fields was always safe when I went. Though that was before Mean Fiddler (never a more apt name) got their mitts into it.
      • LJ 11 months ago
        I'd rather pay a donation and use the eco toilets than the portaloos. The vegetarian food on the green fields was always safe when I went. Though that was before Mean Fiddler (never a more apt name) got their mitts into it.
    • Anon  •  11 months ago
      That was 5 minutes of my life i'll never get back.... brew your own coffee every morning for ��74!?? Really??
    • John  •  11 months ago
      Over hyped, over sold, over priced....full of lemmings tripping over each other.
    • B  •  11 months ago
      Glastonbury sold out yrs ago
    • MARTIN  •  11 months ago
      You really need to ask whether Jamie Carter has ever been to Glastonbury, when it's raining and covered in mud, wellies go on sale for ��10 a pair and not the ��40 cited, I've bought two pairs under such circumstances, hotdogs are just ��2.50, or were last year, and not the ��8 he suggests. Wet wipes are an absolute must as is a trolley with sturdy wheels. An extra blanket to line your sleeping bag, even with a 0C sleeping bag some people get cold at +10C. His comments on the phone charger are spot on but some texts take hours to get through, possibly longer but you need some form of charger, take your USB charger lead just in case, you do find the occasional device with a USB socket available so you may get a few minutes on that; the Chill & Charge tent is a complete bore.
      • LJ 11 months ago
        Spot on. Of course you could leave your Camera/Phone at home and stop waving it in front of my face at gigs before I rip your arms off ;-P
      • LJ 11 months ago
        Spot on. Of course you could leave your Camera/Phone at home and stop waving it in front of my face at gigs before I rip your arms off ;-P
    • ooh er mrs  •  11 months ago
      all you need is some top gear and clean pants
    • Jenny R  •  11 months ago
      All I'm taking is my hammock tent, some changes of clothing, wet weather gear, my camping stove and packets of dried army rations.

      I don't need all of the above...
    • Gotta lol  •  11 months ago
      What a crock! Tent, wellies, warm clothes, extra blanket and ya mates! That is all you need for a great time! Food wise....really? who wants to eat a hotdog when there are soooo many amazing stalls selling EVERYTHING?????
    • glitterball  •  11 months ago
      My friend told me a great story about glasto back in the 80's , it was the last day and everyone had run out of food and money, totally starving they bet one of the friends to nick the hog roast from a catering van, as he was out of his head on acid he thought it was a great idea. He literally walked over grabbed the roast in an old jacket and legged it across Glastonbury full pelt. Classic funny moment and everyone had their fill. NOt sure you could get away with that today, but makes me giggle everytime i hear the story
    • braindead  •  11 months ago
      I went in '79, got in free took nothing except lots of blues and dope and ��5, didn't sleep so didn't need tent or doss bag don't remember much but had a good time
    • anon  •  11 months ago
      last year I got really disillusioned watching the rich kids getting off the train for Glastonbury with masses of expensive stuff - most of them trollied before they even got there. I've never been because, once I was old enough to afford it, the tickets had started selling out before any bands I would want to watch had been announced.

      I just had an awesome long weekend at Hellfest in France - about half the cost of Glasto and (so I'm told) better facilities - with some trusty old camping equipment from the army surplus store about 15 years ago, including my trangia (kelly kettle? coffee maker? mealkit? really?) and a good pair of boots. The boyf and I got a headtorch free with the LED mini-torches we bought for about ��10 on the ferry, and they were probably overpriced. Didn't actually need the thing anyway.

      I had a really good app called a paper 'programme,' which told me when all the bands were on, and could be used to wipe my @#$% when the wet wipes ran out :D
    • bella  •  11 months ago
      waders...........
    • trouth will out  •  11 months ago
      what a manky hole and the charity shops are dearer unless you belive in faries you might as well forget it.
    • Jimmy Hill  •  11 months ago
      Give the hot dogs a miss, there is some seriously good food at Glasto, much more interesting. I believe there is some real sausages on the go as well (rare breed free range pork).
      Glastonbury is a lifetime must experience. I did 3 , loved every one of them.
    • Les Paul  •  11 months ago
      Thats some propaganda eh ? ��832.19, ........... could buy a half decent guitar for that, .......... the dopes ! .............. i suppose that there will be some idiots that go for it though.
    • First Namegary  •  11 months ago
      He's talkin' utter @#$%...I phones, mp3's usb;s, festival apps......what are you talkin about, there's no need for fancy eating utencils, you order food at one one of the million food outlets and hey presto.....plastic knife an' forlk, it aint rocket science, stay in your room playin' with your "imaginary friend app" and leave festival going to people who have got a life........