It doesn’t matter if you are heading off to your first, or one hundredth music festival.
You may still find yourself wondering if you should take a pop up tent.
At first glance, they’re the perfect festival tent, right?
- Cheap
- Lightweight
- Easy to carry
- Simple to set up
So… should you take one?
If you don’t want to read this entire blog post, let me sum it up in one word:
If you want to hear my reasons, then read on…
What Are They?
A pop up tent is a specially designed tent with the poles already inserted.
The tent is folded up in such a way that once out of the tent bag, it is automatically unfurled, instantly and with no effort on your part.
The idea of the pop up tent developed from Pop Up canopies, back in the early 20th century.
As tent technology evolved, the ability to create a small, single-person tent that could be erected (tee hee) quickly was realised and developed.
Over the past few decades, pop up tents have exploded in popularity, particularly with the music festival crowd.
They have also changed and evolved in this time, with a wide variety now available.
You can now get double sized ones, double skin ones, and even double decker ones!
Benefits
Now, I am not saying there aren’t benefits to pop up tents: of course there are!
If there weren’t, no-one use them!
So let’s briefly go through the pros of a pop up tent that may sway your decision.
Cheap
You can find a Pop Up tent for around £20 online, and even under £10 on Amazon!
Compared to the £50-£100 you’d pay for a decent 3-man tent from Halfords or Blacks and it’s easy to see why people would opt for a Pop Up.
A music festival is a time of excess, indulgence and partying.
Underspending on the tent can mean extra money for booze and food, right?
Quick Set Up
As I mentioned before, Pop Up tents are the easiest thing in the world to assemble.
And that’s because you don’t assemble them.
You open the bag and the tent opens out by itself (hence the word ‘pop’).
It’s quick, easy, and doesn’t involve fighting with tent poles or unfolding huge sheets of canvas.
However, these two are about all the positives I can think of for Pop Up tents.
They are two very good reasons, I can’t argue that.
They are probably two of the biggest things people consider when looking to buy a tent.
However, read on and hopefully I can convince you to steer clear of the pop up tent!
The Cons
There are a lot of cons when it comes to Pop Up tents.
Often you won’t realise what these cons are until you have already bought it and are stuck with it.
So, let’s discuss why you shouldn’t get a pop up tent before you buy one.
Small
The basic Pop Up tents you can buy are small.
Really small.
Tent sizes are based on how many people it can help.
1-man, 2-man, 3-man etc.
The general rule of thumb for camping is that however many of you will be staying in the tent, get the next size up.
If there’s two of you, you should get a 3-man tent.
This is because the official size just means how many people you can cram into the tent.
The size doesn’t account for your extra gear, supplies or beer.
With that in mind, a pop up tent is like a 0.5 man tent. It’s so small and cramped.
You cannot possibly lie down in one, with all your clothes, food and drinks, and be comfortable.
Thin/single sheet
This is the biggest issue I have with pop up tents.
They are the most basic tents available, meaning that they offer basically no protection from the elements.
If it rains, you’re getting wet.
Note:
I am aware that you can get double-skin Pop Up tents too, but they are more expensive.
At that price, just invest in a real tent.
Plus, I’m not sure how much I would trust a double-skin pop up tent protect from the rain anyway.
Throwaway culture
Let me just climb onto my soap box here, but pop up tents are awful for the environment and perpetuate our throwaway culture.
Pop up tents are cheap, small and easy to justify throwing away at the end of a festival.
They are also made of plastic and carbon fibre poles. Which are very difficult things to recycle. The environmental impact of this is far beyond what you may think.
With younger people moving towards a more environmentally conscious mindset, I find it odd that pop up tents are still so popular.
While many festivals now have the option to donate your tent and have it go to charity, these schemes are nowhere near able to deal with the thousands of tents left behind at every festival.
Lifetime Value
So, your pop up tent only cost you £20, compared to a half-decent tent for £80.
Sounds pretty good. That a saving of £60!
However, if you throw your pop up tent away at the end of every festival, you need to buy it again every year too.
After 4 years, you’ll have spend the same as the other tent, thrown away 4 tents, being a dick to the environment, and had a cramped sleeping experience every year.
Investing now in a good quality tent that will last many years if a better investment for you, and better for the environment.
They’re all the same
When youre at a music festival, the campsite is a sea of canvas.
Finding your tent can be difficult at the best of times, let alone at 6am when the world is spinning and it’s taking all you’ve got to not pass out in a hedge.
Pop up tents are all the same shape, and only come in limited colours.
Finding your tent isn’t an easy process to start with, but when you’re looking for a slight variation of the most popular tent style around, it’s so much harder.
Wrap up
Don’t get a pop up tent.
I know I listed some benefits to them, but they in no way outweigh the negatives.
Other, slightly more expensive tents are SO MUCH BETTER.
Please trust me on this; you’ll have a much better festival experience if you do.
