2015 questions (already)

welcome to our community! always glad to see new faces. i'm glad to see you're finally pulling the trigger after two years of looking on in envy.
as for your questions, are you going to be flying in or driving? if you're driving, i'd suggest purchasing a tent and some supplies so you have them ready again for next year! i don't know your festival experience, but i'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you've never been to a major, 4 day, camping festival. i'll tell you this, if you're into music and having a good time, you're going to want to come back again and again. go ahead and make the investment in a little bit of gear.
having only 2 years under our belts, it's hard to say anything is super concrete. 1st and 2nd years were two very different experiences, logistically. both very good, but different. pertaining to the lineup, first year was announced incredibly late. don't remember when, but i wanna say it was late spring/early summer. this past year, stuff started rolling out during the winter sometime. i have an awful memory; that's the best i can do, sorry. lol
feel free to let your million questions fly. that's what we're here for!

You can do what you want but the tent rental was so expensive that you can very likely buy the entire camping set-up for the eequivalent or less.  

It's definitely cheaper to invest in your own equipment than to do the tent rental. Plus, if you hate it, you can always sell your tent on Craigslist, so it won't be a total loss. But the reality is, you're going to love it. And you'll want your own stuff so you'll be able to go to festival after festival for years to come.

Part of the festival experience is being with the family. In camping. No offense to people who chose to stay off site but I would have missed an enormous part of the experience that way.

That sums up my feelings exactly. And we were bound to the shuttle schedule so it forced choices we wouldn't have to make staying on site. I didn't get enough time with people I wanted to hang out with either.

I've had my Kelty for >20 years now. I think it is in need of replacement. I have resprayed it with waterproofing material but I think it may have just reached the useful end of its life. Sun is very tough on nylon mine is thin. I would gladly buy another Kelty, though. I have had that tent up a lot...

Sometimes good overstock deals can be had at Sportsmen's Guide, too.

two words: yard sales.

Almost everything in my luxuriously appointed Kasbah, from the army cot to the foriental carpet, was yard-sale got. And you have a year
to shop.

Since you're interested in helping out, you might look into volunteering, although often that's a trade-off of shift work for an
admission discount. Maybe there's a special track for med skills. BTW I never saw anyone hurt (as opposed to hurting but that's
different) but I also never saw anyone who could help out. I had my BIL, an ER doc, on the hill for me.

Not to disagree about tents, but consider putting the money in a quality sturdy 10x10 dining canopy (aka "EZ up") with removable sides.
that's what I slept in and it was great b/c I was solo. If you want to spend a little extra, get VIP car camping so you can easily haul
in the equipment, have space to set up, and better bathrooms. i also brought along a tent (yard sale 4 man $20) but never set it up.

I hadn't camped for over 20 years, although I do a lot of outdoor activities, and used to car camp as well as backpack when I wore a
younger man's shoes. Even lived out a backpack for almost a year on the road in the
third world. Pulled out some old equipment from the garage. The skills come back. The camping aspect is pretty ligthweight.

I pack like Adm Byrd looking for the North Pole so I like my stuffed vehicle on site, plus I have a real tailgate which is incorporated
into the tent to set up the bar. So I reckon car camping is for heavy packers and tent only for light. In the range of things, it was my
observation--and it sounds like you'd concur--that tent only was the most spacious; VIP car was spacious in some places and a little tight
in others, but GA car camping was real crowded. I also thought RV hill (GA) was really crowded.

Have inflatable kelty tent, it is amazing for festivals and general car camping. Wouldn't take it on a real camping trip or anytime I was expecting weather. But all in all, it was a very cool and useful xmas gift from my mom.

If you take it to a festival, bring an extra tarp for a make shift rain fly. It may well save your trip. No one likes a wet sleep g space.

me and my friends were in RV-GA....it was a bit quieter I am sure than the camping area's which has its pros and cons, but overall it was nice to have the AC for a ten minute cool down sometimes...and if it had rained it would of been nice...BUT we spent almost 600 dollars in gas alone just getting there and back...

So Im going to look into the cost of renting an RV close to the site this year. do the math and compare the pros and cons, then decide...I like camping in a tent...its camping, being in an RV is nice but that's not really camping, we used the fridge for food which was awesome..and the occasional AC cool off...other than that....the RV served no real big purpose other than the occasional sleep.....does anybody have a ball park figure on the rental for the days of the fest>>