Festival outfit: what to wear to a techno festival or a rave

A festival outfit gets judged twice: when you arrive, and at the end of the night. In between you will walk from stage to stage, dance for hours, queue at the bar, get hot in the sun and cold once it sets. The advice below starts there, and leaves plenty of room for style once the basics are sorted.

Three rules before style

• Feet first. They decide what time you go home. A great outfit on shoes that hurt is a failed outfit.
• Layers rather than one warm piece. A t-shirt, a light layer and a windbreaker combine as the hours pass; a thick jumper is either worn or carried.
• Pockets that close, in front of you. Phone, card and keys live in a zipped pocket or a bag worn on your front, never in a back pocket.

Shoes, the real decision

Bring shoes you have already worn in, closed, with good cushioning: broken-in trainers for a dry festival or an indoor venue, waterproof boots if rain is forecast on a grass site, which turns to mud quickly. Avoid open sandals and heels: in a crowd your feet will get stepped on, and festival ground is never flat. A spare pair of socks weighs nothing and rescues the end of a day.

Outdoor festivals: from 3pm sun to 3am cold

At an outdoor festival, the temperature gap between afternoon and night catches almost everyone out. During the day cover your head (cap, bucket hat, bandana), wear sunglasses and sunscreen, and pick light, breathable fabrics. At night the light layer and the windbreaker come out of the bag. A folded rain poncho fits in a pocket and saves you a soaked night. In a ski resort the logic is the same, only warmer: see our guide to ski festivals.

Rave and techno night outfits

In clubs and warehouses black dominates, and not only for the look. It comes from the techno club culture of Berlin and northern Europe; it does not show stains, goes with anything and never looks out of place. Think heat above all: a full room warms up fast, so breathable fabrics, a top you can take off, and the cloakroom for your coat. At clubs with a door policy, what counts is rarely a specific item: it is looking like you know where you are going. Our guide to Berghain covers the most famous case.

Depending on the music

These are tendencies, not rules, and nobody will keep you off a dancefloor over a colour. But each scene has its habits, and knowing them saves you from feeling in costume.

• Techno and hard techno: black, understated, often sportswear or utility wear, shoes you can dance in for eight hours.
• Hardstyle: the big festivals each have their colour and merch, and the crowd wears them gladly.
• Psytrance: colour, patterns, loose and light clothing made for the outdoors and the heat.
• House and disco: more colour and fun, the scene where glitter feels most at home.

Accessories that actually help

• A bum bag or crossbody bag worn on your front: hands free, belongings in sight.
• Earplugs, kept on you all night. Why they are the most important part of the outfit: our earplug guide.
• An empty water bottle if the rules allow it; most festivals have water points.
• A power bank and its cable, because your phone carries the ticket, the map and the way back to your friends.
• A bandana or neck gaiter against the dust of a dry site, and sunglasses.

What to leave at home

• New shoes, whatever they are.
• Valuable jewellery and anything you could not bear to lose.
• Plastic glitter: it is microplastic that ends up in the grass of the site. Biodegradable versions exist.
• Whatever the rules forbid (glass, sharp objects, sometimes bags above a certain size): the list changes from one festival to the next.

For everything else (tent, toiletries, documents), the full list is in our festival packing list.