How to do a summer music festival at home
After last year’s cancellations, music festivals are making a comeback in summer 2021. The return to normality might have come too late for Glastonbury, but Latitude, End of the Road and Green Man are all readying themselves for action. Whether you are heading to one of these festivals or not, we think bringing the spirit of them right into your home is a fab idea for a summer celebration. So, read on for tips, hacks and ideas for creating your very own mini-festival at home…
Music
Festivals are, of course, all about the music, so you’ll want to get some summer tunes lined up in playlists. You could also create your own festival line-up by creating dream ‘setlists’ of songs by your favourite artists to play throughout the day. If the neighbours won’t appreciate music blasting out, then get everyone to sync their playlists and put on headphones for a silent disco.
Top tip: Do you have any musicians in your ranks? Make it a proper festival party by sourcing a keyboard or guitar and asking a musical friend or family member to perform a headline set. Hopefully, they’ll take requests!
Food
Music might be the mainstay of a summer festival, but getting the food right is also very important for instilling that all-important festival vibe. Whether you want to recreate the dirty burger experience or would prefer to go for something a bit posher, the choice is yours. For burgers, put a bit of effort in and make your own. This recipe is about as basic as you can get, and once you’ve fired up the barbecue and got them cooked, you won’t be sorry you made an extra bit of effort. Set up a burger bar for the festival-goers to customise their grub – think fried onions, cheese slices, pickles, jalapenos and a decent selection of condiments (burger sauce is essential!) Try these sriracha and lime chicken skewers or these halloumi kebabs, if you want something a little fancier.
Top tip: Summer 2021 will be a season of celebrations, so why not brighten up your party tableware and go for pieces you can reuse again and again? These colourful Choose Happy plates will look great at your festival party, while these Candy Stripe platters are perfect for serving up kebabs and salads for people to help themselves from.
Drink
You’ll want to keeping the drinks flowing at your at home festival, so set up a bar in the most convenient corner of your garden. Nobody wants to be stuck serving drinks all afternoon, so instead get some of our Kilner drinks dispensers and your guests will be able to help themselves. Go for this stackable jar set or this 5L clip top one. If you want to keep a cocktail perfectly chilled, this dispenser will fit snugly in your fridge. You could also fill one of these palm tree drinks coolers with your favourite beer, fizz, rosé and heaps of ice, and put out tumblers and wine glasses for people to use. We think these acrylic tumblers and wine glasses with embossed detail are particularly smart.
Top tip: What will you fill your drinks dispensers with? You could create your very own festival cocktails of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties, or search online for inspo. The trick when using the dispensers is to pick drinks that don’t require too much muddling or mucking about with. Pimm’s is a summer classic, as is Long Island Iced Tea (if you really want to blow people’s heads off!). For something a little different, how about this pink gin iced tea or this watermelon lemonade for the non-drinkers?
Decorations
To transform your home and garden into a place worthy of a summer festival, you should put plenty of decorations up around the place. There are a couple of themes you could pick that fit the bill for a festival – either bright and brash, or boho. For the former, set the scene with our Mix It Up Brights collection: this streamer and balloon arch kit will be the attention-grabbing centrepiece your party needs! For a Glastonbury-inspired boho festival, get started with butterfly bunting, a rose gold balloon arch and white wisteria foliage garlands. Your festival party will hopefully roll on from afternoon into evening, so make sure pretty lighting is part of your summer set up. We’ve got all sorts of lanterns and fairy lights to choose from.
Top tip: Festival-going is perfect fodder for social media, so create a hashtag for you and your friends to use, and you will easily be able to find and share each other's pics and videos of the party.
In need of more summer inspo? Read our favourite ways of getting the kids off the sofa in their holidays and our guide to hosting the perfect picnic