Camping in the rain: tips for staying dry once you're there

Packing right helps, but it only gets you to the campsite. What happens after you pitch is a different skill, and it is the one that decides whether you remember a wet weekend as an adventure or a write-off. Here is what actually works once you are there.

Pitch like the rain is coming, not just the wind

Everyone checks which way the wind is blowing before they pitch. Fewer people check where the water is going to go. Look at the ground, not just the flat bit that is free: a slight slope away from your tent door means rain runs past you rather than under you, and a spot near the top of a field beats one near the bottom every time, however much further the walk to the stages.

Stake out the flysheet properly and pull it taut. A loose flysheet that sags onto the inner tent will let water wick straight through the fabric at the point of contact, even on a tent that is genuinely waterproof. This is the single most common reason people wake up with a damp sleeping bag despite doing everything else right. Check your guy lines again before you go to sleep, not just when you pitch, because wet ground softens and pegs shift.

Manage water at the door, not inside it

Every zip you open lets rain in with you, so treat the porch as the place where wet things happen and the inner tent as the place where they do not. Keep a towel or an old carrier bag just inside the door for boots, and get in the habit of unzipping, ducking in, and zipping up in one motion rather than leaving the door open while you sort yourself out.

A groundsheet that is tucked under the tent's own footprint, not sticking out beyond it, matters more than people think. An oversized groundsheet catches rain and channels it straight under the floor instead of around it.

Drying out without a dryer

You will not get anything fully dry in a wet field, so aim for "dry enough" instead. Wring out wet kit properly before it goes anywhere near your sleeping bag, and give it its own dry bag rather than letting it touch anything you need to stay dry. A few paper towels or a microfibre cloth stuffed into wet boots overnight pulls out a surprising amount of moisture.

Condensation, not rain, is what actually soaks most tents from the inside. Body heat and breath inside a sealed tent condense on the flysheet and drip back down, so crack a vent or a door slightly even in bad weather. A stuffy, fully zipped tent in the rain is often wetter by morning than one with a bit of airflow.

Sleeping dry whatever the ground is doing

A sleeping mat is not just for comfort. It is what stops the cold and damp of the ground reaching you even when the tent floor itself is dry, and it makes far more difference to a good night's sleep than an extra layer on top. If you only brought a thin one, put spare clothes or a towel underneath it for extra insulation.

Keep tomorrow's dry clothes in a dry bag at the head end of your sleeping bag, not the foot end where they will pick up condensation from the tent wall overnight.

The mistake everyone makes once

It is touching the inner tent wall when it is raining. However waterproof your tent is, resting a hand, a sleeping bag or a bag of clothes against the fabric while water is running down the outside will pull that water through. Give everything a couple of inches of clearance from the walls, especially in a small or older tent where space is tight.

The one thing you can sort before you go

None of this makes a truly wet festival dry. What it does is take the edge off, and the rest is attitude: a wet weekend with dry socks and a functioning tent is a story, not a disaster.

The other thing you can sort in advance is the cost of a genuinely bad forecast. Rainy Refunds cover is bought before you go and pays out automatically if the Met Office forecast for your event's time window crosses the trigger in your policy at the agreed check time. No claim, no form, no argument about how wet the campsite actually got: the forecast decides, whichever way it goes.

Check whether we cover your event, pitch on the high ground, and let the rain do what it is going to do.