Finding your tent

At a big festival it’s not easy finding your tent!

Not because someone has nicked it, but because chances are lots of people will have the same tent and you. And it will be in a large field with thousands of other tents which can be very disorientating.

So if you find it hard finding your tent, then take a moment to think about how your kids might feel if they were looking for it?! A sea of tents is even harder to navigate when you are too short to see over the tops of them and it is so easy to lose your bearings (believe me, I know – I’m only 5 foot!).

Your kids might be old enough to go off to the water point alone, but what if they lose their sense of direction on their way back? It can be very distressing for them.

Make your tent easy to find

You can get a great range of poles, flags and windsocks. You can get sleeves to go onto the poles so you can attach multiple windsocks and spinners too so you have a unique combination.

Or perhaps the best thing is to make yourself a big flag and write your camp name on it!  Choose a name or symbol that your children can read and recognise.

Paint it onto a plain flag with a non-waterbased paint so it won’t disappear in the rain. Paint it as big and bold as you can!

A decent pole

Make sure you get a proper pole too – you need it to be flexible and strong and nice and long! Bamboo canes are too short and are hard to get in the ground deep enough. Fishing poles will splinter.

Telescopic Flag Poles are perfect and surprisingly affordable. Make sure you also get a stake to keep it in the ground, and flag bungees to connect your flags and spinners. A pole sleeve is an easy alternative way to attach many different spinners/socks to one pole.

At night

To find your tent in the dark, get some battery-operated or Solar Fairy Lights and tie-wrap or tape them securely along the length of your pole.  It looks pretty and is very practical too. After several glassed of Pimm’s you’ll be grateful too!  Make sure you get outdoor ones because they will be waterproof.

If you choose battery-operated lights rather than solar ones make sure you can reach the off switch. A telescopic flagpole should make it fairly easy to bring the controller down to a height you can reach. Although it is easier to just tape it within reach in the first place.

Solar lights come on automatically when it gets dark. So you don’t need to worry about turning them on and off.

If you want to be really different, get yourself a solar garden light designed for hanging. Attach it to your flag pole or a lantern hook.  When it gets dark the light will come on and will lead you to your tent like a beacon. Unless everyone else has the same idea that is.

I really love the look of these Colour Changing Wind Spinners (see picture)

Oh, and if you don’t want people tripping over your tent corners, then get some LED Tent pegs!

We would love to see some pictures of your creations. Email them over and we’ll get them on the website!