If you’re heading to a music festival this year, you may be wondering what exactly it is you’re going to eat.
- Will you plan all your meals beforehand and lovingly cook yourself three meals a day?
- Will you go totally wild and eat from food vans three times a day?
- Will you just give up on food altogether and focus on the music and experience?
Hopefully it’s somewhere between all three of these options, because each of those plans is dreadful in its own unique way.
Making your own food all the time will take too long and/or not taste amazing.
Food vans can totally bankrupt you if you aren’t careful.
And just not eating is pretty obviously a bad idea.
In this blog post we will look at some of the key meals you can make at any festival. Hopefully you’ll find something great and this will help your festival experience go even better.
Note: Please bear in mind that I am not vegetarian, so most of these foods are meat-related. Not all of them are though, and vegetarians/vegans may still find some advice here too.
The Food
Cheese burgers
The staple of a music festival, the humble cheeseburger is a very easy meal to make. You just need burger buns, cheese slices and a pack of burgers.
Very easy to cook on a disposable barbecue, the cheeseburger is a simple and satisfying meal. There is a reason they have stood the test of time.
Cooking any form of meat has a chance of giving you food poisoning, especially when cooking in a windy field on a disposable barbecue.
However, I’m sure I’ve heard that beef has less chance of getting contaminated, so is a safer bet than sausages or bacon (Note: not professional advice, please don’t sue if you get ill).
Vegetarian/Vegan Sausages
While pork sausages are still relatively easy to cook, I mention vegetarian/vegan sausages specifically, because they technically don’t need to be cooked at all. Obviously there are still risks involved, but far less than with eating meat sausages.
Plus Veganism is on the rise, and while I do eat meat, I am trying to bring that level down, and vegan versions of meat products are a great way to do that.
At one of the earliest times I went to Download Festival (it might have been 2014), the constant, torrential rain meant that lighting a barbecue was pretty much out of the question.
So me and a friend were in his tent, sat on campaign chairs while still in our sleeping bags, chain-smoking and eating Linda McCartney vegan sausages. Uncooked. Straight from the pack.
As they were made from ‘Soya protein’, we figured there was no risk. There still is, technically, but we took the risk and we survived.
Pasta Pots/Pot Noodles
Pasta is a great source of starch and can give you energy slowly throghout the day, rather than the quick burst of energy that chocolate or sugar provides.
Now, Pot Noodles/Pasta Pots may not exactly be the healthiest way to get this starch, but they do the job and they are easy to make.
You just need a kettle and a heat source (Hexi stoves have kind of become the standard acceptable cooking tool at festivals now).
Plus, if you’re British, taking a kettle to a music festival is pretty much required.
You may be raving all night and drinking all day, but how else will you make elevensies?
Story Time
Let’s pause briefly so that I can tell you an amazing story that is still relevant.
Now, music festivals aren’t exactly places to eat healthy, as much as you may try.
Once at Download Festival, our camp was right next to a camp of hipsters and/or hippies.
One morning as our camp awoke, cracking open a can of Strongbow and nursing hangovers, I looked over to our neighbours, and saw something stunning.
They took out a chopping board (weird), sharp knives (scary), and fresh Avocados (what).
Then they sat down and proceeded to made Guacamole. From scratch!
It was an insane thing to sit and watch! It must have taken them a good 30 minutes or so to make a side that’s not even the best thing to dip Nachos in!
I think they then went off in search of a food van not long after.
Tinned Food
Most festivals now don’t allow liquid fuel, making Hexi-Stoves pretty much mandatory.
Aside from using them to heat a kettle for a Pot Noodle & cup of tea, how easy is it really to cook with a Hexi-Stove?
Very.
Seriously, any tinned food (I personally prefer All Day Breakfasts myself) in a can will heat up in less than 5 minutes with a good Hexi-Stove.
Pro tip: eat it straight from the billy can to save on plates and washing up.
Extra
This is entirely something I stole from a Vlog I saw once (from the amazing YouTuber, Helen Anderson).
Sandwiches are basically burgers (which, we’ve already established are the best food on the planet), and are great for holding several things together with minimal effort.
Make a fantastic meal that offers both short- and long-term energy, and some fruit, with a Nutella and banana sandwich.
Very simple to make, tasty (assuming you like all the ingredients, obviously) and very filling.
BUT
Make sure that you don’t forget about food trucks!
Yes, they are expensive, but it’s a supply and demand issue.
Just accept that you wont find pre-cooked food for cheap at a music festival, and be prepared for it to be expensive.
That being said, food vans have come a long way from the dull burger and chips of yesteryear.
Those vans still exist, and I still frequent them (because again, burgers are the best food on the planet. Fact.) but they have risen in quality over the past few years.
But importantly, food trucks have diversified to keep up with demand and also to help differentiate themselves from competitors.
Personal rules
I can offer theories and suggestions all day long, but what’s easiest is to explain my own personal system when it comes to eating at festivals.
I stock up on food before I go (from bulk suppliers like Bookers). This means that I take more stuff to take in the car with me to the festival, but I only take my girlfriend and so we tend to have a lot of extra car space.
With that food we make our own breakfast: usually a tin of something, with bread. (Seriously. All Day Breakfast.)
We will also make our own lunch, which is usually burgers or sausages, made on a disposable BBQ, with sliced cheese and bread.
Then we splash out and have one meal per day from a food van.
This is the main meal of the day, so it deserves to be something big and enjoyable.
This way we are only spending money on food vans once per day, and eat cheaper food for the rest of the time.
Wrap up
Cooking at a music festival may not be super easy, but with basic ingredients/tools, you can still make some decent meals.
And be sure to check out the food vans at least once, you’re sure to find something great.
