Creating a Festival Decompression Zone

Any seasoned festival attendee knows that music festivals are a marathon and not a race. Your days will be filled with exploring and meeting new friends that go into sleepless nights while you dance your troubles away. Properly creating a festival decompression zone at your campsite will help keep you and your squad rejuvenated.

What is a Festival Decompression Zone?

Decompression in the music festival world, is a concept often coined by attendees of Burning Man. Burning Man throws decompression parties to help their attendees ease their way back into society. This term “decompression” has formed the meaning of relaxing or helping people come down after a serious buzz of the festival.

A decompression zone is a safe haven to come unwind when you need a break from the rest of the festival. It’s an oasis to relax and let your body recoup after hours of being on your feet. It’s a safe zone if maybe you went a little overboard and need somewhere to settle down. It’s an essential zone needed for many reasons to help your camp keep going throughout the festival.

Key concepts to keep in mind:

• Shaded if outside
• Lots of cushions or inflatables
• Plenty of seating
• Low colorful lights
• Water easily accessible
• Festival toys to play with

Creating a Festival Decompression Zone

Now it’s time to create our santuary for our camp. We will want to create a checklist and plan and then put our plan into action. Creating a festival decompression zone with a little bit of planning and teamwork will result in an essential and efficient decompression area you all can enjoy!

Decompression Zone Checklist

Before You Go

Before you go, make your own checklist of items you need for your decompression zone. Above is a general list I curated from different festivals I’ve attended. After you’ve created a list of items needed, distribute out the items evenly between your festival group. Make sure each person knows what they are responsible for bringing and contributing to your decompression zone.

Amazon is a great place to find festival toys and lights. There are heaps of budget friendly lights that are also solar powered. You can get all kind of festival lights and toys ideas on websites such as Festival Fanatics or Rave Ready.

Setting Up Festival Decompression Zone

1. Creating the shade – set up the canopies in the center of the camp. The canopies should be connected and tight, providing as much shade as possible. If you don’t have as many canopies as you wish, using a tarp to connect companies for shade is an awesome festival hack. Just remember, the more shade the better.
2. Let’s get comfortable – the cuddle puddle. If you brought the inflatable pool, inflate it and fill with other pool inflatables, pillows, or bean bags. This will make a great area to come cuddle puddle at the end of the night.
3. Relaxing items – set up seating and tables next. Unfold the camp chairs and inflate any inflatable couches to put on the outskirts of the canopies. Try and create a big circle so everyone can be social together.
4. Add the necessities – unfold and place the tables in strategic places (usually the corners or center of the circle.) Fill these tables with bottles of water, toys, spray bottles for mist, and festival toys.

5. Decorateing time! Once the shade and seating have been situated, let us decorate our decompression zone!

   Hang up any lights on top of the canopies. You can weave any LED or Christmas lights around the perimeter of the canopy. Hanging solar powered lanterns look really nice here as well.

   Hang up tapestries on the side of canopies where the sun will be coming in. You will want to block out the sun as much as possible while leaving air flow through your decompression zone.

Enjoying Your Zone

After you set up camp, it’s time to enjoy! You now have a beautiful and relaxing place to come escape to any time you need. Creating a festival decompression zone sanctuary will really make all the difference in your festival experience. So make sure to follow this guide and have a plan for your next festival! Feel free to let me know anything you find necessary for your festival decompression section!