Trading canvas for comfort: the best campervans for music festivals

Sunshine, live tunes, escapism, and… four-wheeled campsite companions? Music festival season is upon us, and we’ve been listening out for the best campervans to use as your backstage base.

Who doesn’t love music festivals: an opportunity to let loose and create memories, relaxing out on a sunny campsite, before grooving the night away against a backdrop of your favourite live music. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it?

Well, although the above is all true, we may have our rose-tinted glasses on here. It’s easy to forget the time spent dragging your belongings across a muddy field to set your tent up, the lack of hot showers and cold drinks, the 4am wake-up as your friend trips over your tent strings…

But fear not, we have the answer: campervans. Trading in that flimsy canvas for four solid walls on wheels has long been a popular option when looking to elevate your camping experience, and we’re here to pitch in with our top festival-ready picks.

Express yourself: VW Type 2 Transporter for best style.

Music festivals have always been an opportunity to put yourself centre stage. From sparkling neon outfits, to the lesser-spotted straw fedora hat, and even the classic glasto’ flag; turning heads is the name of the game.

And for our money, nothing draws attention quite like the iconic Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter. With its immediately recognisable rounded silhouette, two-toned paintjob, and dinnerplate front emblem, the T2 embodies the hippie-chic found at festivals, harking all the way back to Woodstock 1969.

Evoking images of a simpler time, we can’t think of a more stylish base to store festival belongings, gather like-minded revelers, and hit the hay once the music stops. There are even festivals based around T2 campers — you really can’t go wrong.

Home comforts: Ford Transit Custom Nugget for best facilities.

We will admit that festivals have stepped up their food game in recent years, no longer limited to lukewarm chips-n-cheese, or burgers of mysterious origin. However, food trucks often still come with lengthy queues, and prices not for the faint of wallet, so we thought: why not bring your own?

Our choice for cheffing up your own festival grub has to be the foodily-titled Ford Transit Custom Nugget. Packing a full kitchen workspace with hob, sink, and now even a fridge big enough to store bottles upright, the Nugget has everything needed to craft the hot meals and cold drinks to sustain you through the long festival days.

It doesn’t stop there though. Just beyond the kitchen you can find a hot shower setup and — if you opt for a Nugget Plus — you’ll even get a built-in toilet, complete with fold down wash basin. Home-cooked meals, and the ability to sidestep the dreaded communal campsite facilities? No brainer.

Keeping the party going: Mercedes Sprinter for best sound system.

Now, music has never been hard to come by at festivals, but with the days of gathering round the campfire now falling into the rearview mirror, we reckon there is a gap to be filled. Whether you’re learning the words before heading over to the main stage, having a singalong to reminisce on the day’s acts, or are brave enough to host the afterparty into the early hours; a solid sound system can turn your festival experience up a notch.

The van life community has the answer here, the Mercedes Sprinter. Seen as a conversion hero for a reason, the big Benz LCV provides the perfect framework for campers to create just about anything. The Mercedes-Benz Advanced Control system lets converters add functionality including immersive mood lighting setups, fancy automatic awnings, and you guessed it, surround sound speaker systems. 

Partnering this up with the Sprinter’s MBUX multimedia system, we’ve seen converters add many a hefty amplifier and subwoofer arrangement — more than enough to get the crowd going. 

We will admit, we’ve been a little cheeky here as the standard speakers which the Sprinter comes with don’t always receive the best reviews due to some slightly dodgy balancing. However, with both the DIY community and professional converter companies coming together to resolve this, and with the sheer amount of internal space they have to work with in the Sprinter, the sky is the limit.

Never stuck in the mud: Fiat Ducato for best off-roader.

We’ve all seen festival snaps of wellies stuck in the mud, bags being trapsed through puddles, poncho’d music-lovers braving sodden conditions, and worst of all, flooded tents. It’s safe to say that sunscreen may stay in many campers’ bags, particularly at UK festivals. And while a campervan can provide shelter from the elements, it’s also important to ensure you don’t end up with an involuntarily stationary caravan at any point during your stay.

Although the Sprinter could take this spot too (seriously, converters have flipped them into anything you can imagine), we’ve opted for the Fiat Ducato as our off-roader pick. Unlike the Sprinter, there isn’t an off-the-shelf 4x4 Ducato variant, but once again the conversion community has stepped in to save the day. There are many 4WD expedition conversions out there sat upon raised suspensions and beefier tyres, fitted with ladders, bull bars, winches, underbody ‘bash plates’, floodlights… the list goes on. Maybe a touch overkill for the average festival campsite, but you can’t be too careful.

Ducato’s are also lighter than many competing base models of the same size, which combined with their wide axles, and powerful engine options, should let you cruise over any quicksand-like field conditions. 

Pitching up: Volkswagen California for best compact camper.

Ok, so let’s assume that you’ve made it to the campsite, and fingers crossed, it’s dry. Many festivals offer different sizes of ‘pitches’, so we reckon it’s best to keep your options open with a camper capable of squeezing into any. 

Whether you’re pinching pennies in a smaller spot, or coveting more room for activities, we reckon the Volkswagen California has you covered. Despite the new T7 Multivan base adding a few centimeters to their predecessors, the California still clocks in at a compact 5,173 mm by 1,941 mm — no bigger than many family SUVs.

In crowded campsites with limited space, maneuverability matters, and the California mirrors the Multivan’s car-like driving characteristics, featuring a 12.1-metre turning circle, and responsive, accurate handling to get you into the tightest allocations.

Select a larger pitch, and you’ll have ample outdoor hang-out space. The California’s awning can be installed on either side, and comes with camping chairs handily stowed in the bootlid, so you can always face the tunes, or mingle with like-minded festival-goers in comfort.

So that’s it, no matter which festival, we think we’ve found an option to get you there, and give you a little bit of luxury for when you’re not out absorbing the live performances. But do you agree with our list, or do you have a different music festival campervan of choice?

Hero image credit: Unsplash