It’s festival season and if you are planning to travel abroad to see your favourite bands, here’s a list of top tips for a safe festival – helping avoid theft, injury and illness.
Plus, there’s a guide to festivals from Barcelona to Berlin, courtesy of Columbus Direct (www.columbusdirect.com).
For starters before you go, get travel insurance which will cover you for:
- Medical care – The main purpose of travel insurance is to protect you from unexpected costs such as emergency medical care, ambulance fees and repatriation charges.
- Cancellation – If you cancel your trip due to an injury or illness, you are usually covered as long as you were not aware of the problem at the time you bought the policy. This should include the cost of the festival tickets as well as any pre-paid travel and accommodation costs.
- Belongings – Travel insurance will cover most of your belongings but there will be a maximum you can claim for individual items. Mobile phones and other gadgets may not be covered at all.
When will travel insurance not cover you?
- If you choose to take illegal drugs or alcohol and sustain a serious injury or require medical care as a result, the cost will not be covered.
- If you leave any valuable items unattended at any time (other than clothing or other non-valuable items) in your tent, you will not be covered.
- If a festival is cancelled. The ticket cost should be refunded by the organiser, however, travel and accommodation costs are not covered by travel insurance where you cancel a trip due to an event not taking place. Booking the trip through an ATOL tour operator should protect you in those circumstances.
DO:
- Ensure you have travel insurance as well as an EHIC card so you are protected against all medical costs.
- Check your travel insurance policy cover and limits are adequate for what you have paid for the trip and what you will be taking with you. Gadget top-up cover is a good idea if you want your mobile phone or tablet fully covered.
- Take copies of important documents with you such as your travel insurance policy and emergency phone numbers.
- Report something missing to police within 24 hours and get a crime reference number.
- Check if the festival organiser has a lock-up area, these are usually free and a good way to protect your valuables.
DON’T:
- Take unnecessary risks – crowd surfing may be fun but you could sustain a serious injury as a result of it and insurers may not cover you.
- Forget water is not just for washing – drink lots of it to avoid dehydration.
- Leave valuable items unattended in your tent.
- Flash the cash, expensive jewellery or hi-tech gadgets as you may leave yourself at risk to opportunist thieves.
- Book through unauthorised agents as you could spend a lot of money on the ticket and travel to find that you do not have a valid ticket to enter the festival.
Festivals outside the UK:
- Sonar Festival, Barcelona (12 – 14 June) – This is one for beat lovers, a great Euro dance event.
- Meadows in the mountains, Bulgaria (13 to 15 June) – A three day music, arts and literature festival held in the Rhodopian Mountains.
- Exit, Serbia (10 to 13 July) – Exit takes place at the Petrovaradin Fortress, located on the right bank of the river Danube in Novi Sad.
- The Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, Spain (17 to 20 July) – Located close to several beaches. It focuses mainly on pop, rock and electronica artists, as well as having other elements including short films, fashion shows and art.
- Roskilde, Denmark (29 June to 6 July) – Is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the largest music festivals in Europe.
- Hideout, Croatia (30 June to 3 July) – An annual electronic music festival held in Zrce, Croatia on the island of Pag.
- Rock Werchter, Belgium (3 to 6 July) – It is one of the five biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe.
- Soundwave, Croatia (17 to 21 July) – A 3 day live music event, that also includes 5 days of side parties.
- Melt Festival, Berlin (18th – 20th July) – Electronic meets rock at this quirky disused mine venue.
- Tomorrowland, Belgium (18th – 20th July and also 25th- 27th July) – Quickly became one of the most talked about and popular festivals in Europe, a fairy tale themed electronic dance music event with over 400 DJs.
- Sziget Festival, Hungary (11 to 18 August) – One of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August in northern Budapest, Hungary. More than 1,000 performances take place each year.
- Burning Man, USA (25 August – 1 September) – Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States.
