200 Euros for Not-So-Posh Camping

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September 6, 2010 by Jonsky

Conor Pope of The Irish Times was expecting to stay at a nearby hotel, with beds, hot water and the like, when he was sent down to the Electric Picnic to “produce a daily, bite-sized edition of our Friday entertainment supplement The Ticket for festival-goers.”

Then everything changed:

“At the last minute, the Ticket editor decided it would be a wheeze if I camped, in order to, you know, savour the real festival experience. It is more than 20 years since I slept in a tent, so I wasn’t thrilled, but I was so desperate to go to the Picnic – it was my very first time – that I agreed.

She allowed me to spend more than €200 on a pitch in what is known as the Tangerine Fields. For this hefty sum, I got my tent put up by magic elves, an air bed and a sleeping bag. And I was promised a better class of showers and toilet facilities.

Now, while these might well have been better than what was on offer in regular campsites, that does not make them good. The toilets were hazardous from the start, the showers were not much better, and the queues to get into them were massive.”

Finish the story at the Irish Times.