Well, welcome to a crash course in music festival greatness 101. I’ll be your professor and whether you’re a seasoned vet of music festivals or this is your very first time, listen up! It never hurts to learn more than you already know to survive out there.

Music festivals are best enjoyed while with the people you love, making sure you stay hydrated (and no, beer is not water), making sure you protect yourself from the heat/sun and being safe!

Don’t forget it’s not to late to enter our Clover Vegas Getaway contest! If you wanna go to the biggest music festival of the year in VEGAS, download and register on @thecloverapp, for a chance to win a trip for two including: flights, hotels and two tickets to the hottest festival in Vegas! What are you waiting for?! August 20th is the last day to enter!Download Clover now!

1. Drink, drink, drink WATER!

Staying hydrated is super important. I know it’s annoying because you’re going to have to pee every two seconds in a porta potty from hell but you do what you gotta do. Not only that, but if you are drinking alcohol, make sure you pace yourself. No one wants a sloppy ass friend at 1:30 PM, Sarah.

2. Pack the essentials

Other than your extra glitter, obviously, you’re gonna wanna have:

1. Sunscreen
2. Lip balm (preferably with sunscreen in it)
3. Hair elastics (extra ones to make some friends by being helpful!)
4. Bandaids
5. Your forms of ID, cash and credit cards in a small ziploc bag
6. A refillable water bottle
7. Sunglasses/baseball caps/hats
8. Gum/mints!
9. Condoms (BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY, OKAY)
10. Hand sanitizer, lord knows those porta potties end up with no soap or sanitizer by like 1 PM.

3. Bring a FANNY PACK (or a back pack) to pack all of that ^ in

Honestly, make fun of fanny packs all you want but I started bringing them back a few years ago before they became cool again because they’re literally the best thing in existence. You get to live your life HANDS-FREE!

4. Be mentally prepared

I know you probably think I’m such a loser for including this but for real, music festivals (especially those that require camping or go on for days at a time) require a lot of mental preparation especially if you’re an introvert like me!

5. Be open to making new friends and meeting new people

One of the most amazing things about all music festivals is their ability to unite people from all over the world in a weekend-long moment of euphoria. Try to branch out and make new friends! You never know if you’re gonna meet your new BFF or your new BF!

6. Use Clover to make friends ahead of time

If you’re going to a different state for a festival, use Clover to find local singles/friends ahead of time! The more the merrier, isn’t that right?

7. Stay out of the sun as much as possible

I went to Osheaga a few years ago, got all cute, went to the first day and had a blast. I apparently thought I was stronger than the goddamn sun ’cause I ended up getting heat stroke and had to sit out on day two. Don’t be me. Be better than me, okay?

8. Don’t shove other people to get to the front

Listen, get to the stage early or don’t bother. Elbowing your way to the front of a place that’s already tight as sardines is a dickhead move. Don’t do it.

9. And if you are at the front, don’t just text the entire time.

This tip comes straight from artist Phantogram who says “if you want to be near the front of the crowd, don’t text the whole time. We see that shit.”

10. AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE ALL THINGS GOOD TRY TO PEE/#2 INTO THE PORTA POTTY HOLE

For some reason by like 3 PM latest, the porta potties look like they’ve seen some SHIT. Literally and figuratively. Please, try your best to AIM, EVERYONE.

11. Tired of not being able to access data? Well, here’s a festival data hack!

Go into your phone settings, turn off the LTE network so it connects to 4G. Everyone else will be on the LTE network while you’ll be on a different one with less people! Thanks, Phantogram!

12. Eat outside of the festival (if you can)

Festival food usually isn’t that great in terms of variety and portion size, plus it’s SO expensive. If you can pop out, do so when some of your favorite artists aren’t playing and grab some inexpensive grub to fill up your party tummies!

13. Plan out who you want to see most and stick to the plan!

It’s virtually impossible at most music festivals to see ALL of the artists play, so create a priority list/plan on who you definitely want to see!

YOU COULD BE LIVING THESE TIPS OUT AT THE HOTTEST MUSIC FESTIVAL IN VEGAS IN SEPTEMBER! From now until Aug. 20th, if you download and register on @thecloverapp, you can enter for a chance to win a trip for two including: flights, hotels and two tickets to the hottest festival in Vegas! What are you waiting for?! Download Clover now!