tricks for keeping your tent cool?

RV. Sorry, best I got. Seen the swamp cooler thing but never tried it. Don't use dry ice.

A week before the festival, turn off the AC in your home, crank open the windows and turn on some fans. Refuse to go anywhere there's AC and don't use it in your car. Then you'll be nice and acclimated.

I dunno about y'all, but when I was a kid, no one in my trailer park neighborhood could afford AC. Somehow we survived. 

Only DC?

As someone who works in HVAC in VA I would like to point out there is a reason you don't see swamp coolers in VA, it is too humid here for them to work. I imagine you would have a rain shower in your tent if you tried. It might work with tons of ventilation but count on it being humid at Lockn.


I like to leave the rainfly off if weather permits or just set your cot or mat under your ez up or shade structure. If you have to leave your fly on those small fans do help a little bit, l like to just point it straight at my face in the mornings when I start waking up.

What he said about the rain fly--nothing will heat up a tent faster. At Bonnaroo-the heat capital of the world-lots of people either set their tent up under a EZ-up, or they just sleep under the EZ-up in cots. I pull the seats out of my minivan and put an aerobed in the back-that also works well. If you can get in the woods it will be MUCH cooler!

I see we're the same age.

At Roo this year they had some kind of odd yurt things on platforms you could rent in VIP.  They had air conditioning, but the weather was just too hot for the AC to be effective in the day time, according to some disgruntled occupants.

That would be why I said NOT to do it.

Yeah, dry ice in the swamp cooler in your enclosed tent might give you that special high known as a coma.

Sounds like a well thought out plan.

The ice cooler fan is a joke; fagetaboutit.

An ez-up over the tent is good. Maybe even put a tarp on it to darken it more. Be mindful of adding shade on the southern and western exposures, then east in the morning.

I sleep under the EZ-up but mine has sides. I put down an old canvas tarp for the floor. Sleep on an army cot--up off the ground is cooler. Sheets, not sleeping bag. I also use cotton tapestries for sides; breezier than the plastic sides. Bugs have not been a problem both years I've been, but I have been up on a hill (always claim the high ground).

Stick your ankles and wrists in a cooler of ice water (you could even pack a 10# ice bag between your thighs but that would be too weird; it's something EMT would do).