The short answer: budget roughly £50–£70 per day on top of your ticket if you're eating and drinking on site, or around £30–£40 per day if you bring your own food and most of your drink. For a typical three-night UK festival that means somewhere between £120 and £250 in spending money, plus travel.
The ticket is the headline cost, but it is rarely more than half of what a festival weekend actually costs. Here is where the rest goes.
Food
Festival food traders in the UK typically charge £10–£14 for a main. That has risen sharply in recent years. Two meals a day bought on site is therefore £20–£28, before coffee or snacks.
The single biggest saving available to you is breakfast. Bring cereal bars, brioche, bananas and instant coffee and you cut a third off your food bill without cooking anything or carrying a stove. Most people find that eating one bought meal a day and self-catering the rest is the comfortable middle ground.
- Eating everything on site: £30–£40 per day
- One bought meal a day: £15–£20 per day
- Fully self-catering: £8–£12 per day
Drink
Expect £7–£9 for a pint at a UK festival bar, and similar for a basic spirit and mixer. Soft drinks are £3–£4. Water is free at refill points, so take a bottle and never buy it.
Because you can normally bring your own alcohol into the campsite but not the arena, the practical approach is to drink your own supply while getting ready and buy in the arena. Five drinks a day at arena prices is around £40; the same evening starting from the campsite might cost £15.
Travel and parking
This catches people out because it is paid separately, often in advance.
- Car parking: £15–£35 for the weekend at most festivals, sometimes more, and increasingly pre-book only.
- Coach travel: often £30–£80 return depending on distance, and usually the cheapest way to travel solo.
- Train plus shuttle bus: shuttle buses from the nearest station are typically £5–£15 each way.
- Fuel and a share of the driving if you're travelling by car in a group.
The on-site extras nobody budgets for
- Showers: free at some festivals, £5–£10 a go at others.
- Phone charging: £10–£20 for a locker or a rental power bank. A portable charger from home pays for itself the first time.
- Lockers: £20–£30 for the weekend if you want somewhere secure.
- Forgotten kit bought on site: a poncho, a phone cable, sun cream or a cheap blanket at captive-audience prices. Budget £20 for the "I forgot" fund.
- Merchandise: band t-shirts are typically £25–£35.
- Funfair rides, spa tents, workshops and other paid extras at boutique festivals.
Cash or card?
Take both. Most main bars and larger traders are card-only now, and many festivals have gone entirely cashless. But phone signal in a field is unreliable, card readers fail, and some independent traders, taxis and car park attendants still want notes.
A sensible split is to plan to spend on card and carry £40–£60 in cash as a backstop, kept somewhere separate from your wallet. Cash machines on site exist but charge a fee of around £2.50 and the queues are long.
A worked example
A three-night festival, arriving Thursday and leaving Sunday, self-catering breakfast, one bought meal a day, a moderate amount to drink:
- Food: 4 × £18 = £72
- Drink: 3 × £25 = £75
- Coffee and snacks: £20
- Showers and extras: £25
- Contingency: £30
- Total spending money: around £220, plus travel and parking
Doing the same weekend frugally – own food, own drink, no showers, no merch – brings it closer to £90.
How to spend less without having less fun
- Eat before you go in. A big meal in the campsite before heading to the arena is cheaper and better than queuing for food when hungry and impatient.
- Fill your water bottle every time you pass a tap. Hydration also reduces how much you spend on food you didn't want.
- Set a daily cash limit and leave the card in the tent. It works.
- Buy merchandise on the last day if at all – it is frequently discounted, and you avoid carrying it round.
- Split shared costs up front. One person buying every round in a group of six is how budgets collapse.
Frequently asked questions
Are UK festivals cashless now?
Many are, or are close to it. Even so, carry some cash for travel, taxis and independent traders outside the site.
How much is a pint at a festival?
Typically £7–£9 at a UK festival bar, with craft and cocktail bars charging more.
Can I bring my own food in?
Into the campsite, yes, at virtually every festival. Into the arena, small snacks are usually fine but full picnics may not be.
Is a payment wristband worth topping up in advance?
It saves queueing, but check the refund policy for unspent credit before you load a large amount onto it.
