The Music Festival Wizard team has been testing festival gear for the past three weeks up in Vermont, and let me tell you that’s it been a thirsty business. From downtown beer festivals to camp-outs to working on articles about festival drinkware in coffee shops, we’ve been quenching our thirst with a variety of fun products. If you’re looking to up your drinking game this summer, here are a few items you might consider for your camping kit.
1. Hydroflask Cooler Cup
It holds your beer! It holds your can! It doubles as a cup! We love multi-purpose items, and the Cooler Cup fits the bill acting as both a can/bottle cooler which magically transforms into a 12 ounce beverage container. Like everything from Hydroflask, expect your drinks to stay hotter and colder longer.
2. Platypus DuoLock SoftBottle
I’ve talked about collapsible soft bottles for three years straight and am not stopping anytime soon. As more festivals come online with free water stations, I find these water bottles are best for daily use. When they’re empty, you can roll them up and store them in your bag, or even in your pocket. The DuoLock even has a clip that attaches to your belt loop and a nice wide mouth for when you need to transfer from glass containers to plastic before entering the campground.
3. Klean Kanteen Insulated Classic
Out of all the water bottles we have tested over the last couple weeks, I ended up bonding with the Klean Kanteen Insulated Classic. It has a slim profile for fitting in my backpack and a nice top for attaching a carabiner. I found ice cubes still floating inside after 48 hours of sitting on my porch (spring weather), bringing me one step closer to the dream of cold campground cocktails at a European music festival.
4. Hydroflask Wine Tumbler
Sometimes you just want a smaller cup for those mixed drinks or wine. Enter the Hydroflask Wine Tumbler, which keeps your drinks cool and your coffee nice and hot. It comes with a lid that keeps your liquid spill-free, especially if you’re the type of person that tends to wildly gesticulate with your hands while talking about the beauty of campsite drinkware.
5. Stanley Classic Vacuum Growler Party Pack
While they may be known for power tools, Stanley doesn’t skimp when it comes to drinkware. The party pack is the best bang for your buck with a massive 64 ounce thermos style container that comes with four stainless steel tumblers. Out of all the growlers tested, this one had the widest mouth, easy for filling up with ice — ice that stayed there for three days and counting.
6. GSI Outdoors Collapsible Java Drip
After four years of drinking the absolute worst coffee in festival press tents, I’ve been recently converted to packing in my own brew. This collapsible setup is fairly simple and the java drip folds down into its own case to keep my bag clean.
7. Hydroflask Growler
To test the Hydroflask, we swung by the Prohibition Pig in Waterbury and filled it up with 64 ounces of pure Vermont microbrew goodness. We immediately drank half of it to test the pouring feature (it works), then left it in the sun for the next eight hours. Our 24-hour check showed that the internal liquid temperature stayed just about even.
8. GSI Outdoors Infinity Backpacker Mug
After five minutes of use, this went straight into my backpack. It’s so lightweight that I can barely feel it and the soft-strap handle is perfect for hooking onto the side of my bag with a carabiner. This is my new all-day drinking cup.