Langerado 2011 Survival Guide, Part 2: On-Site Camping

​Breaking: Langerado 2011 has been canceled.

We are pleased to report that Langerado has announced that there will be on-site camping at this year's festival! That means there is another option for nesting in addition to the ones laid out in Part 1 of our Langerado Survival Guide. The on-site camping is a great feature for obvious reasons. For one, it can be a blast to be camping out among fellow festigoers. And, of course, it's a good thing to not have a bunch of people who have been partying at a festival for 12 hours load into their cars and rage the highway together.

As fun as the camping experience has the potential to be, there are some important things to take into consideration while preparing for this scene. For the basics -- rules and regulations and how to secure a campsite (there is a limited number) -- take a look at the Langerado website. For thoughts on some of the subtleties -- intended to help you have a smooth, fun trip, and avoid catastrophe -- we invite you to read on here.

Here are some general things to keep in mind:

This is not car camping

Many musical festival veterans may be used to camping next to their cars -- that's how it is at Bonnaroo, for example, and how it was at Langerado '08 at Big Cypress. Car camping can be convenient because you can keep lots of stuff in the car and have easy access to it. This is not the case here, which is both inconvenient and great.

It is inconvenient because if there is stuff you wish to have under lock and key while you are away from the site -- guitars, stereos, food, beer, etc. -- you will have to trek back and forth to your car or bring a safe. It is great because it will be a fun and cozy having all the peeps camping in the field together without a bunch of cars crowding the scene and farting exhaust fumes from time to time when someone wants to charge his cell phone or blast music.

It is important to make friends with your neighbors right away

As soon as you see them, say "hello!" and introduce yourself. This is your neighbor. You are doing this thing together. Great friendships can form very fast in the festival camping environment. Food, drink, stories, and songs will be shared. Having rapport with the neighbors makes the whole thing more fluid and comfortable both on the level of fun and friendliness and on the practical level. They may have something that you need, they may be able to watch your stuff while you go for a stroll, and vice versa.

It is important to have a good-enough tent

Do yourself a huge favor and make sure that your tent doesn't leak in the rain. If the shit goes down, a crappy tent will prove useless. Especially considering that this is not car camping, and thus all of your stuff will be in your tent, a good downpour can literally dampen your whole experience, especially if it hits in the middle of the night. We're talking no sleep, all your stuff is still drenched in the morning, then it rains again the next night, and so on. If you roll into the fest with a shitty tent, you better make real good friends -- snuggle-level friends -- just in case you need a place to rest when your shelter fails.

Let there be shade!

A pop-up shade tent -- or enough tarp and rope to rig something up -- may be the most important feature to include in your campsite next to your sleeping tent. Having shade is crucial. If there is shade, there is rest and relaxation during the daytime before you head in. If there is no shade, you will either roast in the sun and be resentful of the people who are cooling out or you will have to go on a journey to find some shade. The latter route can be fun and lead to more festi friendships and adventure, but it's really nice to have your own shade scene. Then you can invite others who are dying in the sun into your shady haven.

Some other stuff to bring

Some of this may be obvious, but it can be easy to forget: acoustic guitars (bring a Beatles songbook too), hand drums (for obligatory spirit jams), kites, frisbees (the kind that glow in the dark!), hackey sacks, hula hoops, incense, squirt guns, silly masks (to mess with tripping people), ear plugs, iPod boombox, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, toilet paper, first-aid stuff, and a copy of your choice spiritual text (in case you go over the edge).

You will also need food, which we will discuss in a future blog. For now, just know that you will be allowed to bring a propane stove, and there will be ice available to keep the perishables stable in the cooler. Also, there will be food vendors to help you survive in style.

Some stuff you aren't allowed to bring:

No glass bottles! This is another issue that we will address in a future blog. For now, just know that good beer also comes in cans, and wine also comes in boxes. For the former, you will need to look around a bit, and for the latter, you will need to learn how to play a game called "slap the bag" (don't worry, we will teach you).

No fire! This is a bummer but for the best, given that campers will be living in very close quarters. If it gets cold, we'll just have to rely on the warmth of our fest-happy souls to keep us warm.

No drugs! But the website says campers can bring a case of beer per person. Isn't beer "drugs"?

Finally, a few additional survival tips:

This will be a port-o-let scene. Learn the schedule of the clean-up trucks and adjust your poo rhythm accordingly. This is the way toward comfortable campsite crapping. Generally, you'll probably want to schedule your poops for first thing in the morning, before the crowd lines up and destroys.

There will be no showers. There will be drinking water, though, and any water combined with Dr. Bronner's and a free spirit equals a sufficient festi bath. Ideally, there will be an epic rain at night just after the music ends and peeps will strip for an ecstatic, collective, sudsy baptism -- it happened at Big Cypress in '08!

You will need a special wristband to get into the camping area. So if you meet someone whom you would like to invite to join you for the baptism after the music is over, you will have to figure out a wristband for him/her.