How to elevate your festival experience with VIP upgrades

Make your summer festival experience a little more luxurious with VIP upgrades.

There’s few feelings quite as fantastic as first stepping on to festival grounds. The stresses of reality have been left behind and there’s not a care in the world for the next few days. Well, other than creating memories with your nearest and dearest, watching the bands or DJs that have soundtracked your lives, forging new friendships with like-minded folk, and making sure you stay adequately hydrated. Not too shabby, right? The only thing that can possibly dampen spirits is the unpredictable weather, which in the UK, is the bane of us Brit’s existence. But it’s out of your hands.

What you can control, however, is whether or not to elevate your festival experience that little bit further.

Music festivals nowadays have seriously upped their game when it comes to offering memorable experiences that aren’t just about the music. Heck, you can even have a fabulous time without the music. Not that we’d recommend that course of action, of course… Whilst it’s not quite yet The White Lotus level of grandeur, VIP upgrades can truly make you feel like the belle of the ball, offering up creature comforts and extra special treatment to sprinkle a bit more pizzazz over your festival experiences.

But is it worth it? Here’s what VIP lounge upgrade experiences are available at this summer’s festivals – which can be purchased as a package or upgrade for current ticket holders – so you can be the judge.

Get The Best Views

The thing about festival crowds is that no matter what height you are, there always seems to be someone taller than you standing in front. Don’t get us wrong, everyone’s entitled to a good vantage point of the headliners – be it sitting on someone’s shoulders, crowd surfing to get a glimpse up-close-and-personal, or simply standing further back and enjoying it through the big screens either side of the stages.

But with VIP lounge upgrades at a host of this summer’s festivals and outdoor concerts, getting a picture perfect view of the stage will never be an issue ever again.

LIDO Festival, for instance, has an exclusive Viewing Area, tucked away near the front of the stage where you can enjoy headliners like Massive Attack, Charli xcx and London Grammar with no obstruction whatsoever.

Likewise, get right to the very front at TK Maxx presents Lytham Festival in their VIP garden. TK Maxx presents Live At Piece Hall has a private VIP area with prime views of the stage – where you can see Khruangbin, Deftones, James, Simple Minds, Busted, Leon Bridges, The Smashing Pumpkins and more in all their glory – and VIP upgrade for TK Maxx presents Bedford Summer Sessions offers access to The Terrace, a raised decked viewing platform with a private bar to boot.

Skip The Queues

We’ve all seen movie premieres when the Hollywood glitterati step out of their limousine and waltz directly down the red carpet as their legions of fans paw at them like their lives depending on it. Well, imagine it was you, strutting your stuff into the next music festival you attend.

With VIP upgrades, you can swan past the queues with an exclusive fast track entry into venues. Easy peasy.

Don’t Worry About The Party Poopers

Festivals have moved a long way beyond a hole in the ground where you’d do your business. (Except maybe Glastonbury Festival where revellers are very much livin’ la vida loca with the long drops. The trade off for being environmentally conscious, I guess…)

But there’s still occasions towards the end of a weekend when the portaloos can get a little, let’s say, dubious. After a weekend’s worth of boozing, and thousands upon thousands of festival-goers paying a visit, the toilets at festivals are never going to be pristine.

That’s when a VIP upgrade comes to the rescue. The ‘posh loos’ have less punters dropping by so there’s a reliable amount of loo roll always on offer, smaller queues, and less mess as they’re frequently cleaned. If there’s one slice of luxury at a festival that’ll transform your weekend, it’s arguably this.

Make Your Festival About Fine Dining

Long gone are the days when a dodgy burger from a greasy van had to sustain you throughout an entire weekend, with food options at festivals offering deliciousness from around the world.

Still, if you’re not keen to quickly scoff a saucy gyros or a sushi wrap en route to another stage, then why not introduce some fine dining to your festival?

Chelmsford City Live have upped the ante with their VIP upgrade, offering up a champagne reception and either a luxury four court buffet or fine dining experience before you boogie on down to the likes of Justin Timberlake, Olly Murs and Duran Duran. Similarly, TK Maxx presents Live At Lincoln Castle dishes out prosecco on arrival for their VIP guests, and with Manchester Pride you get an invite to an exclusive Diamond VIP Brunch. Plenty of flavours – and flutes of bubbly – to savour.

Live The VIP Lounge Life

Life in the VIP lounge is just a different pace. There’s ample seating to plonk yourself down if your feet hurt – or neck if you’ve been moshing. There’s never any queues at the bars. There’s plush changing rooms if you fancy a costume change. There’s pampering areas to give you that last night zhuzh ahead of the weekend’s final headliner. There’s just plenty of space to soak up the good vibes.

Not only can you lounge about, literally, there’s also exclusive experiences awaiting for those who choose to upgrade to VIP. You never know which celebrity you might see swanning about, but for those heading to Download Festival, you’ll basically get your own private concert – not only does The Lounge offer all the small things when it comes to extras, there’s an additional stage where bands will play especially for VIPs.

Can’t Find A Babysitter? No Bother

This is truly next level concierge style care. Ever wanted to bring your kids to a festival, but aren’t quite capable of letting your hair down as you never know what kind of mischief they’ll be getting themselves into? Well, never fear: festival babysitters are here.

Both Latitude and Wilderness are offering to look after the little tykes for anyone that upgrades to VIP, whilst you sink a few glasses to your favourite acts. Guilt-free parenting at its finest.