Voodoo festival in New Orleans is right around the corner and with it comes the last minute preparations.
Whether you’re spending the last few days beforehand finalizing your outfits, mapping out your must-see bands or just relaxing, here’s a quick and useful survival guide to help check off your last minute preparations. Come Oct. 31, you’ll be heading to Voodoo a music festival professional.
1. Plan ahead.
Each day of Voodoo includes various bands on different stages. Before hitting the festival grounds, make a game plan with your group of friends of where you want to go and when you need to be there. If you plan to split up, make sure everyone still has at least one buddy. A worst case scenario would be getting separated from the group and not being able to get in contact with any of the members.
2. Pace your phone battery and have a meetup spot.
Let’s face it, you’re going to be spending the day taking pictures, videos and checking social media, so that phone battery is going to drain quickly. Pace yourself on how often you check social networks and text messages, it’ll all be there at the end of the day. Use that phone battery for emergencies if you need to find someone, or to save memories with photos and videos. Make sure to plan a meetup spot with your group if you all decide to split up. That way if someone needs to be found and their phone died, they know a quick and easy spot to go to meetup.
3. Have cash and plenty of it.
For three days, you’re going to be buying food, drinks and merch. Since the majority of these purchases will be made at food and merch stands, using cash is a safer option if the stands don’t take cards or experience a card processing issue. Another positive, you don’t have to worry about losing your debit card. Dropping ten bucks is a lot less of a loss than your whole bank account.
4. Pack an extra outfit.
Music festivals offer the opportunity to dress differently than the day to day basis. However, sometimes while packing you think an outfit is a great idea and then when the day comes to wear it, you realize it wasn’t such a good idea. Pack an outfit that’s on the safer side, so if your original plan doesn’t work out, you have a back up plan.
5. Wear comfortable shoes.
You’re going to be walking and standing all day for three days, so don’t wear shoes that are going to make your day uncomfortable. Aim for safe options like sneakers and boots. Steer away from heels and anything that’s constricting. Also, avoid anything open-toed. The last thing you want is to break your flip flop or have someone, or something, land on your almost bare feet.
6. Create a small, useful first-aid kit.
Small first-aid kits can be bought, but you can also make your own. Remember to pack band-aids, sunscreen, pain-killers and contraception. You never know what you might need.