Top 5 Festival Gadgets

JOE presents the top five festival gadgets that will help you get through Oxegen with your sanity intact.

JOE

For many of you, the only things you think you need when going to Oxegen will be a sleeping bag, a tent and as much drink as your car will carry. Here at Joe, we salute that kind of courageous folly but we thought you might like to know about some festival gadgets that might just save you from yourself and get you to the final gigs with your sanity intact.

Solar Camp Shower

This is just the ticket for getting rid of that mid-festival body odour. The Solar Camp Shower is simplicity itself, just fill the 20 litre bag with water and leave in the sun for 3 hours and you will have the perfect antidote to a night and day of drinking and partying.

Once prepared, the Solar Camp Shower will make you the envy of your neighbours and will no doubt draw in many of them who will be eager to use your facilities, especially those of the female persuasion.

A word of caution because if you leave it out in the sun too long, you might get more than you bargained for as the water can heat up to a scorching 50 degrees.

The Solar Camp Shower is available from 53degreesnorth.ie and costs just â‚¬7.20.

The Travel John

The festival toilet is known for two things; the massive queue and the two minutes that you will have to hold your breath for in order to get out alive.

It doesnâ€™t have to be this way because Travel John has a range of sanitary solutions that will allow you to relive yourself in a second without having to put yourself through the horror of the Portaloo.

The basic Travel John is basically a bag you piss in. This isnâ€™t just a lazy toilet because the inside of the bag is lined with chemicals which will turn your number one into a non-toxic and biodegradable gel which is safe to deposit in any bin. Because of this, the bag is leak proof and one size fits all, thanks to a cleverly shaped cup the Travel John is suitable for the ladies as well.

There are some other Travel John options for solids, but finding the kind of privacy needed to use them might be a challenge.

The basic Travel John costs Â£5 for a pack of 3 and is available from Amazon.co.uk.

Veho Pebble Portable Charger

The first day of any music festival can often be the best because you will still have the bulk of your drink, your face will be free from permanent marker and your phone will be fully charged. Cut to the second day and things can be very different with your phone usually having just enough juice to send the odd drunken text.

Bringing along the Veho Pebble will make this problem a thing of the past. Essentially a large rechargeable battery, the Veho Pebble can hold enough power to fill your iPhone four times over and thanks to a bevy of adapter cables that come included, your camera, PSP or MP3 player can be revived as well. What it wonâ€™t do is erase the giant cock that your mates drew on your forehead while you were in a Buckfast induced coma.

The Veho Pebble is available from Play.com and is priced at â‚¬51.99.

AeroBed Classic

Sleep might not be high on your list of priorities at Oxegen or the Electric Picnic, but at some point you are going to have to recharge those party muscles before the next round of madness. A common problem here is that no matter how comfortable your tent might look, it will still be pitched on the same hard ground of the campsite; something that can turn a quick nap into something more frustrating as it feels like every stone in the field is jabbing into your back and neck.

Inflatable mattresses are often the solution here but a cheap buy from Aldi will only get you so far, as it takes ages to inflate and will often deflate during your snooze. Spending more on an AeroBed Classic will solve these problems and deliver the most comfortable night in a tent you will ever have.

Forget foot pumps , the AeroBed comes equipped will an electric pump that will inflate or deflate the mattress is under two minutes .The quality of the materials used will also ensure that the bed will stay inflated, no matter what you get up to in your tent.

The AeroBed also comes with a machine washable cover that will ensure is survives the rigours of the Oxegen and be ready to rock for the next for the next festival without the need to have it soaked in bleach.

The AeroBed ClassicÂ is priced at â‚¬115 and can be ordered from Beds.ie

The Pocket Pint.

This is one of those genius ideas that you cannot believe someone hasnâ€™t thought of before. The Pocket Pint is exactly that; a collapsible but sturdy plastic pint glass that you can tote around in your pocket and avoid the perils of wash back as the cans are passed around. The glass also comes with a handy case to keep it free from mud and any other unsavoury matter that a campsite can throw at it.