Do stay hydrated.
Festivals are in the summer and summer is hot. It should be common sense to stay hydrated, but when you're busy watching The Black Keys and having a religious experience from it, you can easily forget. Many festivals offer watering stations and allow you to bring in unopened water bottles and camelbacks. Use this to your advantage! The cost of festival-issued water bottles can get pricey, so check the festival's FAQs page to see if you can work around buying water.
Do wear sunscreen.
Festivals are all-day, outdoor events, so the sun will beat down on your precious, exposed skin for hours on end. Protect it and slather on the sunscreen before you head out the door (or out of your tent, depending on which festival you go to). A multi-day festival can be completely ruined by an easily preventable sunburn.
Don't sacrifice function for fashion.
Those Aldo wedges may be 'totes adorbz,' but don't forget: you'll be walking around on them all day. Instead, find a pair of shoes that are comfortable and walk around in them the week leading up to the festival to break them in. Many festivals feature sprawled-out stages, meaning you'll be doing a lot of walking. And trust us, people are much more interested to see St. Vincent than they are your shoes.
Do have a meeting place.
Part of the fun of festivals is sharing the experience with your music-minded friends. But all those festival selfies and Vines you're taking eat up your phone battery. If your phone bites the dust, designate a meeting place and times throughout the day where your group can meet up and decide where to go next.
Don't appropriate cultures in the name of festival fashion.
You may think the native headdress you found at Urban Outfitters is super cute!!!!!! but it's actually a little racist. Sorry, a lot racist. Why? Because it's taking a spiritual or culturally important symbol out of the culture, thus stereotyping that culture. Some recent cultural appropriation offenders include Avril Lavigne's "Hello Kitty" video, Miley Cyrus' "twerking" and basically everything Vanessa Hudgens wears at Coachella. Actually, to be safe, look at everything Vanessa Hudgens wears at Coachella and do the opposite. Easy.
Do see as many bands as you possibly can.
This is pretty self explanatory.
