Music festivals take place across Australia throughout the year. On any given weekend, you can often find Queenslanders gearing up for a weekend of music and hanging out with their mates.
Most of those people are going to have a great time at their festival of choice, but there are always a handful of folks who come back a little worse for wear. Whether it’s sunburn, hangovers, hearing loss, or camping incidents, there are a lot of things that can take away from your festival experience. The good news is that most of them are relatively easy to prevent.
We've put together a survival guide for everyone who wants to come home from a music festival saying ‘awesome’ instead of ‘ouch’. We’ve broken down the things you really want to be aware of when you're catching your favourite bands, hitting the bar and camping out.
Throughout the festival
Keep yourself hydrated
You can survive a few days without water, but dehydration stops being fun a lot earlier than that. Low to moderate dehydration will leave you thirsty, dizzy, headachy, and fatigued. Severe dehydration may leave you breathing quickly, set heart pounding, give you constipation and see a trip to the emergency room in your immediate future.
The human body is 50-80% water and needs to maintain that level, so failing to replace the fluids you lose throughout the day will result in dehydration.
- Make sure you drink water regularly. Most of us do a pretty good job of staying hydrated in our day-to-day life, but the circumstances are a little different at a festival. You're spending more time in the sun, you're walking and dancing for two or three days and you'll probably sweat a lot more than usual. This means there's more liquid leaving your body, so make sure you drink water regularly.
- Pick water ahead of other options. Drinking more water is the easiest fix for mild to moderate dehydration. Make sure you've got enough water packed in your camping gear, know where to get refills, and ensure that you're drinking regularly throughout the day.
- Watch out for symptoms. There are a handful of signs you're experiencing mild to moderate dehydration and need to up your fluid intake. These include headache, thirst, dizziness, not urinating as much as normal or dark coloured urine. The moment you start experiencing any of these, it's time to drink some cool water, loosen any tight clothing and look for a place to rest in the shade.
Practise sun safety
We're sure you know the drill when it comes to sun safety: slip, slop, slap, seek, and slide. Follow the link if you're still a little hazy on what that means and the rest of us will talk specifics.
- Re-apply sunscreen every one to two hours. Sunscreen doesn't last forever, particularly if you're sweating a whole lot. You'll need to re-apply at least once every two hours to stay protected, so make sure you've got some broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher sunscreen with you throughout the day.
- Cover up as much skin as you can. Remember that darker clothing with a tighter fabric structure will generally offer better protection than lightly woven fabrics, stretched-out clothing, or light, pastel shades.
- Wear a hat and sunglasses. Your face, neck, and ears are common places that melanoma tends to develop, and with the hours you're going to be spending in the sun, a broad-brimmed hat that protects all three is essential. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can also be really bad for your eyes, so invest in a good pair of wrap around sunnies to cover you for the length of the festival.
- Remember Queensland's UV levels. In southern states there are points in the day where the UV level drops below 3, making the risk of skin damage relatively slim. That's doesn't really happen in Queensland, so make sure you use sun protection methods whenever you are outside.
At the stage
Protect your ears
Sure, you might like your music loud and half the point of hitting a festival is experiencing the big, live audio. This needs to be balanced against a fundamental truth: damage to your hearing doesn't heal; when it's gone, it's gone for good.
When it comes to loud noises, there are two things that contribute to hearing loss - the decibel level and the length of exposure. We typically speak at about 65 decibels. Damage starts if we're in close proximity to noises at 85 decibels for a period of up to eight hours, and for every 5 decibels over that level, our safe exposure time is halved.
Concert speakers will typically pump out the audio around 103 decibels, or sometimes higher if compensating for the poor acoustics of an open-air venue. Even at the lower ends, this means you're risking ear damage in seconds if you're right next to the speaker stack. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to mitigate those risks.
- Invest in ear plugs. Even a cheap pair of ear plugs will lower the overall decibel level of the music, and they'll make a huge difference over the course of a full day.
- Take a 10-minute break every hour. Even if you're using earplugs, it's a good idea to find somewhere a littler quieter once an hour to give you ears a break.
- Pick your location. If you're close to the stage, aim for the spot between the speakers. Easier said than done, sure, but it's the safest spot from an auditory standpoint if you must get up close. A better choice is standing a bit further back and putting some distance between you and the wall of noise, so maybe limit your front row time to your absolute favourites.
- Stay hydrated. There's a lot of good reasons to stay hydrated at a festival that we've already discussed, but here's one more - the fluid in your inner ear is affected by dehydration, which means it gets harder to hear and you'll be tempted to move closer to the speakers.
- Limit your drinks. Ever noticed how people get louder when they drink? It's because our hearing gets worse when we drink, so they start turning up the volume. Booze doesn't protect you from the hearing loss that accompanies exposure to loud volumes, though, which means you're putting more than your liver at risk when you overindulge at the bar.
At the bar
Take care of yourself
Common sense and moderation go a long way when it comes to drinking, and obviously we recommend against engaging in any kind of illicit drug use if you're looking at the best health options. If you or your mates are planning on ignoring that advice, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Pace yourself. Space out your alcohol consumption with non-alcoholic options. Water is a great choice if you want to stay hydrated. It's also a good idea to drink slowly, even if you've only got a few minutes between acts.
- Keep an eye out for warning signs of overdose or ill-effects from drug use. Pay attention to your friends’ behaviour and keep an eye out for signs they may be in trouble. These include having trouble breathing, confusion, lack of awareness about their surroundings, struggling to function normally, dizziness or passing out. If you notice any of these, get assistance immediately.
- Don't be afraid to call for help. If you or someone you know needs help, it's important that you act quickly and get them medical assistance early. Talk to onsite support, including security, police, chaplaincy or first-aid officers in your area. People often hesitate for fear of getting into trouble, but the reality is that police aren't called unless there has been a violent incident, a death, or a specific request for law enforcement to be present made by a third party.
Keep an eye on other people
Minimising your own health risks around people who are drinking is a good start, but you're not alone out there. A festival means that you're surrounded by a huge number of strangers, many of whom have been drinking or indulging in other substances. While most people will get through an entire festival without a bad experience, it's worth keeping a few things in mind when dealing with your fellow festival-goers.
- Know where to go in an emergency. Get a rough idea of security and first-aid stations when you first arrive and make sure you know where to go and who to talk to in case of an emergency. If you you’re going to separate from your friends, let each other know where you're going and when you're likely to return.
- Pay attention to your surroundings. More importantly, trust your instincts when they tell you it's time to get away from someone or go looking for help. If you feel like someone is getting aggressive, or if you and your friends are in an uncomfortable situation, remove yourself from the situation and find somewhere safe.
- Watch out for drink spiking. You're probably used to hearing about drugs like GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) and Rohypnol when people talk about drink spiking, but the most common substance used in drink spiking is alcohol. This is done by giving someone a stronger drink than expected, whether it's through the addition of extra alcohol or substituting one drink for another. In an environment where lots of people are drinking, protecting yourself and your friends is particularly important. It’s not just people you don’t know who might spike your drinks: many people have their drinks spiked by people they know. Do your best to avoid this by buying or pouring your own drinks.
At the campsite
Pay attention to food safety
There are a lot of things that can go wrong with the human body due to eating food that isn’t prepared or stored properly. This doesn't change just because you're camping on a festival site. In fact, a campsite is the last place you want to get sudden diarrhoea and vomiting, so keeping nasty bacteria at bay is important.
Here's the handy list of guidelines to keep in mind when it comes to cooking and eating while you're on-site:
- Sanitise your hands before touching food. If you're away from a tap with clean, running water, invest in a small bottle of hand sanitizer you can pack with your camping gear.
- Think about how you’ll keep your food cold. If you’re using an esky as your fridge throughout the festival, keep in mind that unlike an electric appliance, it will only keep food below 5°C and out of the temperature danger zone for a limited time, especially if the weather is hot. Pack ice bricks, frozen drinks and ice around food that needs to remain cold or frozen and plan for meals made from non-perishable foods later in the weekend. Ensure there is adequate ice or ice bricks to keep the food cold. If possible, restock ice in an esky before it has all melted. Keeping the esky out of the sun in a cool place will also help keep food cold.
- Keep ready-to-eat cooked foods separate from raw foods. Raw foods, particularly uncooked meats, should be kept covered and separated from cooked foods and ready-to-eat foods to avoid cross contamination.
- Reduce the number of times the esky is opened and closed to preserve the temperature. If you can, store any drinks in a separate esky, as drinks will likely be accessed far more often than food.
- Throw away perishable foods (e.g. meat, poultry, dairy) if they have been out of temperature control (warmer than 5°C) for longer than four hours. Two hours is your limit for putting food back into the esky, with four hours being your absolute upper limit for eating something once it's been removed from the cold. Keep in mind that these guidelines will get shorter if it's a very hot day.
Pack a first aid kit
Yes, there will be ambulance officers and security guards trained in first aid at the festival. Getting their assistance is a great idea if you get hurt, but it's also handy to be equipped for treating minor cuts and bruises for yourself. Here's what you'll want to prepare for:
- Cuts and scrapes: Minor cuts and scrapes that wouldn't be a big deal at home become a bit more of a concern when you're camping. You'll want to clean, treat, and cover them up to prevent any infection that could really impact on your weekend. Stop any bleeding by using a clean cloth or bandage and applying firm pressure. Clean the wound by rinsing it thoroughly with clean water to remove any dirt or debris, pat dry with a clean cloth and then cover with a band-aid or bandage.
- Mild insect bites: If you're heading for camping grounds, you'll be in the middle of the natural terrain of mosquitoes, ants, bees, and wasps. Investing in some insect spray is a good first step, but if you've been bitten you should wash the bite marks and apply a cool compress to reduce pain and swelling.
- Rashes: If you're out in the middle of nature, there's a chance you're going to run into a plant or animal that produces a rash on your skin. Wash your rash in clean water and wash any clothing that might have been in contact with the cause. Pat your skin dry instead of rubbing it with a towel, and leave your rash exposed to the open air when you can.
