With festival season being, close to, completely cancelled because of COVID19, it’s time to bring the festival fun to you. Grab your tents, glitter, and music, because this is how you can host a festival at home. 

• Give your festival a name
• Make access passes
• Create a map
• Pick your line-up
• Get your house festival-ready
• Set activities 
• Get yourself festival-ready
• Dine al-fresco
• Stick with camping 
• Document the journey

Give your festival a name

Begin planning your stay-at-home festival by naming it. Don’t stress yourself out too much about creating a funny or witty name, something simple will do just fine. Naming your festival will simply put a name to the event and make it more official.

Make access passes 

It’s always nice to have memorabilia from a festival. Despite your festival taking place in your own home, and with limited guests due to COVID rules, making access passes is a fun way to commemorate the event. Make your passes by either drawing or create a simple graphic. Print your graphic on plain paper or card and fold it into a small rectangle. If you have access to a laminator, laminate the pass to avoid it becoming damaged by spilled drinks or general wear and tear. Finally, attach your passes to some string, or a lanyard if you have one, and hand them out to your festival-goers. Don’t forget to remind them that without their passes they can’t access the festival, so they must be worn at all times. 

Create a map

It may seem silly to create a map for your festival when it’s being hosted in your own home, but it’s part of the festival experience. Draw a simple layout of your house and pinpoint the areas where events will take place. You could even create a breakdown of which bands you will be playing at certain points of the day, just like in a real festival program. Similarly to the access passes, creating a map will provide your festival-goers with a small token from the festival that they can keep. 

Pick your line-up

You can’t have a festival without music. Unfortunately, you can’t have any live performances, unless someone in your social bubble is a musician. Luckily, there are a few music streaming options that will provide all the tunes your festival needs.

Firstly, many festivals that have been cancelled due to COVID have been showing performances from past acts. For example, Radio 1’s Big Weekend is available to watch on IPlayer. You could create your perfect festival line-up by going through performances from festivals past and playing those for your guests.

Alternatively, you could create your own playlists using a streaming service. This way it is completely up to you which songs to include in your set. Regardless of your decision, make sure that you have a headline act that is worth sticking around for. 

Get your house festival-ready 

You can’t host a festival without getting your house adequately festival-ready. Make a stage for your virtual bands to perform on by using a chair or table to prop a laptop on. Pitch a tent in your garden and allocate camping space for those staying at the festival. Use fairy lights to illuminate your food court and stage area. Create an outdoor seating area using throw pillows and blankets. Finally, finish off creating the festival vibe by using colourful streamers and banners to decorate the area. You want to create a new experience for your festival-goers, so get creative with your decorations. 

Set activities

When visiting a festival there are usually activities that can be done between seeing performances. These can be anything from face/glitter painting to playing human-sized Jenga. Plan some activities throughout the day that can involve all of your festival-goers. Do some face-painting, play some games and, most importantly, have fun with it. Make sure that your activities are appropriate for all ages so that any children at the festival can join in. 

Get yourself festival-ready

Part of the fun of festivals is dressing up for them. Think flamboyant but comfortable. Shorts, feathers, sequins, tassels, and, of course, a pair of wellies. You want to be prepared for all weather conditions, so it’s best to wear something lightweight for the sun, but also have a waterproof coat on-hand for the rain. The most important thing to remember when getting ready for your festival is… you can NEVER wear too much glitter. 

Dine Al-Fresco

Eating at festivals is all about grabbing something easy to eat at a food truck and dining Al-Fresco. Set up a BBQ and have burgers, hot dogs and other easy-to-eat delicious BBQ foods available for your festival-goers. Create your very own food court and let your guests lounge on throw pillows and blankets whilst they enjoy some, much-needed, festival food before they get back to their raving. The bonus of attending an at-home festival is that you can skip the endless food queues. 

Stick with camping

One of the best parts of going to a festival is camping. The joy of a stay-at-home festival is that you don’t have to camp in a crowded campsite, surrounded by queues of people waiting to use the portaloos in the middle of the night. Upgrade your camping experience by creating a calming campsite that your festival guests can enjoy. Pitch some tents and make them comfortable and cosy. Leave out plenty of sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets for your guests to snuggle up in, and light your tents with a multitude of fairy lights. You want to give your festival-goers a relaxing area to wind-down after a day of partying to their favourite artists. 

Document the journey 

Finally, make sure that you document your festival journey. Your festival is bound to be a lot of fun for yourself and your guests, so make sure that you capture plenty of photos and videos to remind you of what you created. You could even go live on Facebook and Instagram and share parts of your festival experience with your followers. 

The joy of a stay-at-home festival is that there is less chance of your clothes getting covered in mud from staying in a field all weekend. If you do happen to get muddy during your festival, let us take care of your clothing. Book a Laundryheap hot wash service by heading to the Laundryheap website or by downloading the free Laundryheap app.