How to hold your very own music festival

Install a makeshift stage on your lawn, book a band and invite over a load of mates? You can definitely do better than that. Here is how to create your very own music festival.

Your Venues: Main Stage or Dance Tent?


Dance Floor with Disco Ball

Are you creating a day and night festival? Will it be primarily live music, or will you be dancing to DJs at 3am? Consider your artists and your audience. The best festivals have more than one performance space. No matter how tiny and boutique you are planning to go, you can still create a secondary space for impromptu sessions. A firepit is perfect for acoustic jams. If you are creating a main stage for live music, hire the right PA and talk to the hire company before you book – or build – the staging. The sound system will need an optimum setting. Live music by day, DJs by night is a good formula and your main stage can become a vibing electronic music dancefloor by simply turning on a few lasers. A stretch tent or pole tent will make an excellent late-night dancefloor providing warmth - and of course has limitless décor and lighting potential. Marquees are of course weatherproof and can house the soft furnishings to make your festival goers feel cosy. Certain tents can be linked to create unusual spaces and secret rooms which makes for an atmospheric party. A silent disco could be a good option if you have neighbours prone to complaint.

Dress Up Theme


Dress up


Dress up

People love dressing up for festivals – and some of the best shows on the planet announce an annual theme to inspire outfits. Allow your guests plenty of time to get creative. Make a Pinterest board of ideas. Encourage home-made, upcycled, collaborative and group efforts. It will make your party so much more of a success by adding a hilarious group dynamic as everyone gets party ready together. Consider a Saturday night crescendo – rather than enforcing the theme for an entire weekend.

Glamping

We all know the campsite is a huge part of the festival experience. Spending a weekend under canvas with your loved ones (whatever the weather) is a bonding experience in itself and will inject a lot of fun into the weekend if everyone is prepared. Inspire your guests to bring cosy rugs, lanterns, fairy lights and cool boxes. The best camps are super well-prepared and a pleasure to go home to when the time comes. Simply add a mini portable speaker and decadent nightcap.


Glamping Tents

The Arabian Tent company were the ‘Glamping’ pioneers, creating a series of decadent boudoirs at Bestival 2005 at the very beginning of the glamping hype: boutique bijou tents decked out with plush velvet and mirrored linings. So who better to create your own Boutique Camping Village with a range of different forms of accommodation for your guests to choose from. Bell tents, Boudoirs, and a beautifully decorated Airstream trailer.

Food Trucks


Food Truck

The best festivals have incredible food to sustain your dancing. You may want to just use one caterer or a different cuisine for each day. Pick a food truck that is versatile enough for many eventualities; from late-night snacks to hungover brunches.

The Bar

Buying a few kegs from a micro-brewery means you are supporting a local business and you get delicious, reasonably priced craft beer on tap. Make sure you use bio-cups – or ask your guests to bring their own cups to hang off their belts. Depending on numbers, draft cocktails are a winner for busy parties where everyone wants a cocktail but waiting for individually shaken drinks is not an option.

Cocktail Bar


Décor


Festival Tassel Garlands

Flags, bunting, haybales, festoon. The quintessential festival décor needn’t be expensive. Bunting can be homemade very easily – or hired cheaply. Ask your guests to bring rugs for picnicking by the main stage. You can successfully DIY your décor. However, we can put the extra twinkle in your party should you require it. House of Hud will create a bespoke festival dreamworld. Tassel garlands, lampshades and tropical hammock hangouts, miles of festoon and fairy lights, a secret garden interactive door, beautiful garden pallet furniture, late night dancefloors, a luxury boudoir hidden away in the woods, after-party areas and plush interior lounges. It’s all about the sparkle and anything is possible.

Lights and Fire...


Fireplace


People around the Fireplace

The quintessential festival vibe involves a campfire, twinkling lights, woodsmoke, stories around the fire and impromptu songs. Think tealights in jars, festoon mapping the paths and fairy lights strung from the trees. We can illuminate your festival incandescently - and will site your braziers for those rum-soaked, late-night fireside jams.

Other fun stuff...


Funky Toilets

Our sprawling collection of festival props, décor and accessories is limitless and has been built up over 20 years embedded in the world of festivals. We can add the sparkle with our bespoke festival-style bars, dancefloors, photo booths and backdrops. Rave under our heart shaped mirror balls, shimmer disc installations, neons and light-up trees. And our Gypsy Caravan themed toilets will add a touch of class to your toilet game. Dream big lovers.

Funky Photo-booth