A festival can be a life-changing experience if you do it right, with the right people or just the right mindset. It’s absolutely an experience worth budgeting and saving for, and depending on which ones you choose, you might have to! From the legendary Burning Man in Nevada to Boom Festival in Portugal, costs to attend these epic events, and have your mind blown wide open, can skyrocket without properly planning for the adventure.
Here are five tips to make sure the trip stays within your reach:
- Travel smart: If you fly, fly mid-week, Tuesday-Thursday, when ticket prices are cheaper, and book your flights far in advance, if you can. Be flexible with your flight dates, and use price comparison websites like Kayak or Google Flights.
- Buy your festival tickets early: Most festivals offer early pricing for cheaper than the full ticket price charged right before the festival. Sometimes, its much cheaper, and worth buying a ticket far in advance, especially for in-demand festivals. If life happens and you can’t go, you’ll have no problem finding a buyer for your ticket.
- Volunteer: Helping setup a festival before it opens or joining the team that runs it can be one of the best parts of the festival experience. The special connections you make can last a lifetime, and you can get meal vouchers, camping, and your festival ticket free!
- Bring friends: depending on the festival, traveling in a group can cut costs; Burning Man expenses can get crazy, especially if you’re driving out to the playa in an RV or towing a camper packed with two weeks of transformational festival gear, food, and water! Splitting these costs among a group is the way to go.
- Pack snacks: Festival food can be great, but expensive. There can be amazing vendors with food from all over the world, but it starts adding up after a couple days. Visit a local market on your way to the festival and load up on fruits, dried fruits, nuts, juice, or granola. Be sure to check out our travel Go Box with plate and utensils in the FrequencyBeat Marketplace for eating on the go, waste free!
- Go small: Look for festivals with less than a thousand people. Huge festivals like Envision, Ozora, or Tomorrowland can have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 people, and the plane and entry tickets will cost you, especially as demand for flights and tickets goes up. The smaller, lesser known festivals, like Tribal Gathering in Panama or Zen Awakening in Florida, have more affordable ticket prices with similar magical experiences.
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