Taking a Van to a Festival: How to Carry Gear for Your Group

Taking a van to a festival means carrying everything at once

Festival gear takes up more space than you'd expect. A tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, folding chairs, a cool box, a stove, crates of food and a box of clothes for every kind of weather. In a car you'll take half of it, and the rest means a second trip or someone leaving half their things at home. Taking a van to a festival lets you carry the whole group's gear in one go.

Volume matters, not weight

Camping gear is bulky but light. The payload ranges from roughly 1 100 to 1 450 kilograms depending on the model, and you won't use it up with a few tents and boxes. The limit is the load floor and the height of the space. Compare the dimensions of the individual vehicles in our fleet with what you'll actually be carrying.

Write a list before you start packing

Agree on who is bringing what. With a group, it's easy to end up bringing three stoves and not a single water container. Divide the gear into shared and personal. Load the shared things first, and personal rucksacks last — those are what you'll be getting out first at the site.

The return journey tends to be bulkier

Expect not to pack as tightly on the way back. A damp tent takes up more space than a new one from the shop, and you'll have empty packaging, wet clothes and things bought on site. Leave yourself some spare room in the cargo area so that nobody has to carry anything on their lap.

Equipment and stall gear fit too

It's not only festival-goers who travel to festivals. Bands carry their sound equipment, stallholders refrigerated display cases and organisers furniture. Sound equipment is heavy and delicate — stand the cases on the floor against the front wall and put a blanket between the individual pieces. The payload and load dimensions differ between models, so go through them before you start planning the number of trips.

What to sort out before you set off

Book in advance. Festival weekends are among the busiest dates of the season. Cancellation is free no later than 72 hours before the rental starts, so you can reserve a date before your group is definitely confirmed.

Have two valid identity documents ready, one of which must be a category B driving licence. No registration or user account is needed; you handle the whole rental via the web app on your phone.

Only the person named in the contract is allowed to drive. If you want to take turns on a longer route, the second driver must be registered and added to the contract in advance. It can't be sorted out in the car park outside the site.

Loading and the journey

Pack in the order you'll unload

What you'll need last goes at the back. Load the heavier and hard items first — boxes, the cool box, a water barrel — and spread them low and evenly across the floor. Soft things such as sleeping bags and sleeping mats fill the gaps at the top and stop the load from sliding around.

Secure light loads too

Light things behave just as wildly on a bend as heavy ones. Folding chairs and tent poles can force their way forward under hard braking. Use tie-down straps and push the load against the front wall of the cargo area. Carry glass and bottles in crates, not loose.

Driving a loaded van

A loaded vehicle takes longer to brake and is slower to pull away. Keep a bigger gap and take bends more slowly. All the vehicles run on diesel and have a manual gearbox, so they can't be driven with a driving licence restricted to automatics. A motorway vignette is included in the price, but trips abroad are not permitted — we operate exclusively within the Czech Republic.

On site and after you get back

Check vehicle access to the site in advance

Festival campsites often have their own rules for vehicle entry. At some you can only get in at set times; at others, entry is restricted by a barrier or a height limit. Check this on the event's website before you set off, and allow time for the queue at the gate.

The van is for transport, not for sleeping in

Nobody sleeps in the cargo area. The vehicles are neither designed nor equipped for it. Plan a tent or accommodation; the van is there to save you trips with gear, not to replace a place to sleep.

Take your rubbish away bagged up

More rubbish comes back from a campsite than you'd expect. Put empty packaging, cans and broken gear into sturdy bags and tie them up. Loose rubbish is hard to clean out of the cargo area, and the vehicle is returned in the same condition in which you took it over.

Returning the vehicle

The vehicle is returned with a full tank to the same location where you picked it up. Fill up on the way back, not at the last minute in Prague. We operate non-stop, so it doesn't matter if you're coming back from the festival on Sunday evening or during the night.

You can leave your own car parked at the location free of charge for the duration of the rental. That way the group can all drive to one place, switch vehicles and leave in one. You'll find any remaining questions about pick-up and return in the FAQ section.