No festival prints its social contract on the back of the ticket. But there is one, and most experienced attendees know it instinctively.
Breaking it does not get you removed. It just makes things worse for everyone around you, including yourself.
Crowd and stage rules
- 🚶 Don't push forward through a dense crowd: once the space in front of the stage is full, pushing forward means pushing into people who have been standing there for hours. The right approach is to find a less dense spot, arrive earlier for the next act, or watch from the sides.
- 🧍 Hold your ground, not a gap: keeping a circle of empty space around you in a dense crowd takes that space from someone else. Stand compact in busy sections.
- 🙅 Don't save large spots for friends: saving a 2-metre patch of grass for five friends who haven't arrived is considered poor form. One person can hold one spot.
- 🤸 Moshing etiquette: if you enter a mosh pit, you accept its terms. If someone falls, help them up immediately : this is a near-universal rule in heavy music crowds.
- 📣 Singing and crowd participation: encouraged everywhere. Phones held up blocking others' views are not.
Camping courtesy
A festival campsite is a temporary community. The people around you share your water, your toilets and your sleep schedule for three days. Most conflicts come from noise and space.
- ✅ Keep your footprint tight: set up your tent, guy ropes and gear within your pitch. Sprawling into adjacent space makes enemies fast.
- ✅ Quiet hours exist: most festivals have unofficial quiet hours (typically 4am to 8am). Loud music and shouting after this window will draw complaints.
- ✅ Don't leave your campsite a mess: on departure, take everything or bag it. Leaving bottles, food and waste for strangers is considered antisocial everywhere.
- ✅ Communicate before cooking: if you're using a camp stove, check the rules : open flames are prohibited in many campsite areas.
- ✅ Be a good neighbour: if someone's tent is left unzipped in rain, zip it. If someone's gear rolls away, grab it. Small kindnesses in a campsite pay back quickly.
Photography and phones
A phone raised above the crowd at eye level blocks the view for everyone behind it. The same applies to professional-looking cameras in general admission areas.
- 📱 Film from below or beside your face: hold your phone at face level or lower, not above your head. You will get a slightly different angle and block nobody.
- 📸 Snap a few, then put it down: recording the full set on a phone is a habit that reduces your own enjoyment as much as it affects others. A 30-second clip at the peak moment is usually enough.
- 🚫 Ask before filming others up close: general crowd shots are fine. Close-up filming of specific individuals : especially without awareness or consent : is not.
- 💡 Flash photography at night sets: flash at a concert ruins the visual experience for performers and the people around you. Turn it off.
Queuing and bar etiquette
- ⏳ Queue for the bar, don't send one person for ten drinks: the person who walks to the front saying 'my friends are over there' is never popular. Queue, order together when you reach the front.
- 🤝 Let people through who are trying to exit: if someone is pushing toward the exit (or visibly distressed), let them through. You are going nowhere for the next two hours.
- 🚻 Toilet queues are legitimate: cutting a toilet queue : especially at the portable toilet rows during headliner breaks : is considered one of the more serious social offences at a festival.
- 💰 Have your money or token ready: the people behind you in the bar queue are thirsty. Spend your waiting time finding your wallet.
Looking out for each other
Festival crowds function well because most people look out for each other. This is worth making explicit.
- ✅ If someone looks distressed, check in: 'Are you OK?' costs nothing. If someone seems unwell, alone and confused, or unable to help themselves, get a steward.
- ✅ Wave down stewards for medical situations: every festival has a medical team and clearly marked first aid points. If someone collapses or is having a medical episode, create space and get a steward immediately.
- ✅ Crowd crush awareness: if you feel a strong push from behind in a dense crowd, brace your elbows outward to maintain space. Move sideways toward the edges when possible. Crowd crush is a real risk in very dense festival environments.
- ✅ Keep your group's location shared: a designated meeting point before the show starts is standard practice. Phones lose battery and signal in large crowds.
Before you go, read our festival accommodation guide and our festival outfit guide to arrive prepared.