Closed, worn in, and expendable. Boots if there is any chance of rain; the field will not drain.

A t-shirt, an overshirt or hoodie, and something waterproof if the forecast is uncertain. It gets cold once the sun goes.

Festival: hands free?

A small crossbody bag that closes. Anything you carry in your hands you will put down and lose.

Occasion

What to wear to a festival

Fourteen hours on your feet, on a field, through three kinds of weather. Comfort is the whole brief.

A festival is an endurance event dressed up as a party. You are outside for twelve to fourteen hours, on ground that turns to mud the moment it rains, and you cannot go home to change. Everything follows from that.

Closed shoes you have already broken in, and nothing you would be upset to ruin. A festival field destroys white trainers and open shoes are how people end a day with a cut foot.

Layers beat one warm thing. It is twenty-eight degrees in the afternoon and eleven at two in the morning, and the only way to be right for both is something you can tie around your waist.

The rules, short

Shoes: Closed, worn in, and expendable. Boots if there is any chance of rain; the field will not drain.
Layers: A t-shirt, an overshirt or hoodie, and something waterproof if the forecast is uncertain. It gets cold once the sun goes.
Hands free: A small crossbody bag that closes. Anything you carry in your hands you will put down and lose.
Fabric: Cotton and denim over anything technical. You will sweat, and synthetics hold it.

Men