Pros and Cons of Tent Only Camping

car camping = no need to unpack, just live out of the back.
cell phone charger
severe weather shelter
dry storage
tunes

My preferences on car camping, to those points, go to the "no lugging" aspect: I don't have to lug the jump box, or the stuff in the car.

Anyway, I am not a light packer for these things so where others enjoy the challenge of minimal gear/streamlined life, I enjoy the challenge of bringing everything imaginable, from the ridiculous to the sublime, in case I or my neighbors could use it!

In my defense, I have in my day done the super lightweight backpacking and week-long canoe trips, and I lived out of a non-frame backpack for almost a year travelling SE Asia, India and Aus, so I can do it!

And a friend camping close to the gate willing to let yo stash stuff at her camp site. (Hint hint) 

anything less than a station wagon ain't a wagon!

excuse me, you can't just make decisions like this without consulting your camping buddy. i forbid you to tent only camp.

We've done tent only for 2 years and are very satisfied with it. The proximity to venue is definitely a plus for us. We have a very sturdy metal wagon to haul stuff and this year we were able to pull off the road beside the camping area and unload quickly. Sunday night people left, so we were able to pull the vehicle into a vacant camp site right next to ours. We had a 10 x 10 canopy over our area and a truck cargo box for locking up things. We also locked our cot-tent which provided extra locked storage. We've discussed other camping options, but are content with the tent-only. I can't think of any other cons from what you mentioned.

Would love to have you & Worf join the tent-only ranks!

Sure, I'm one of the big proponents of tent-only camping:

So, the distance from the venue thing was not as great this year, since you had to walk all the way around the VIP to get to the venue entrance.  Much more of a difference last year, when we walked straight up the track.  Depending on where in car camping you go (which I realize is a crap shoot) you might be closer or farther away from the entrance than tent-only.  

The hauling is not very substantial, at least not for us.  It is not that far from the truck to the site, literally about 20 feet this year and 50-100 ft. last year.  We also only hauled one way last year, as we pulled the truck into the site to load up.  This year we packed both ways, but again, not a big deal.  Many people drove to the tent-only site this year and dropped their stuff off and moved their car to the camping area (and some didn't even do that, there were a lot of cars in tent-only this year).  I don't think that is how its supposed to work, but entry this year was sort of a cluster.

The big thing that helps us with the hauling is that all of our camping gear is in plastic totes, so we just carry a few totes to the campsite.  Not really specific to Lockn, just the way our gear is stored for camping.  Only time we repack is if we are going more primitive camping and have to carry a few miles.  If you just have stuff all over your car or truck, well, that would be a pain.  

My biggest reason for liking tent only is that I just don't like to camp next to my car.  I honestly don't even consider Lockn to be camping.  We are sleeping in a tent, but camping implies trees and nature to me.  

Anyway, we want a camping compound with friends this coming year.  We had that the first year, but more by accident by making friends with those around us.  This past year we didn't have that.  Makes the experience better.  Not 100% sure what camping we will do next year.  

Honestly I have no idea of what I could possibly need at Lockn that we would bring if the vehicle was right next to us.  We bring whatever we want, not sure what is missing.

The only inconvenience at all for us is the big cooler, which we load up and is heavy, but really you carry it for about 1 minute total the whole weekend.  

We all have different definitions.  But if I'm sleeping in a tent, it's camping.  Some camping is easier than other camping.  But no bed/tent=camping.

Meanwhile...I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to have a giant compound of Forum folks all camped together in tent land.  Could be really sweet!  We had a blast this year being camped next to Sneake...I have to imagine that adding more friends would be all the more fun.

The only camping I do, since I was a kid, is at festivals. And at Lockn' I go SVIP. My idea of roughing it is I having to walk all the way down to the SVIP tent to eat, no tent deliveries. And the people that give us the shoulder rides could grunt a little less.

Agreed

Car camping is appealing to me because if I can car camp I use my car as my "tent"..I drive a Grand Caravan and take all the seats out. My twin aerobed fits perfectly in the back, and I put my "kitchen" in a pop up shelter. I'm off the ground and dry-and definitely safer from lightning-at Lockn this year they told us volunteers that we couldn't car camp so I had to bring a tent. I would have much preferred to be in my van when that microburst hit than in a flimsy piece of nylon...