Festival in a tepee

Stef writes:

After checking out the amazingly fantastic lineup that Download festival had to offer, I had but one issue; finding a decent tent to spend five nights in.

The specifications were;

1. It had to be roomy. Rain was forecast and I needed a tent for socialising, as well as sleeping.
2. It had to be light. Lugging a heavy tent, no matter how high-spec and awesome it may be, for however many miles from the car park to the campsite, would be no mean feat.
3. It had to be easy to spot. Amongst the many tents of the other 80,000 campers. Most of which would be green or blue.

So I offloaded my worries onto Craig, who with 11 years experience in all things tentlike, immediately recommended the Vango Juno Tepee. "You want space? Get the 500."

Although I was slightly apprehensive about taking a single-skin tent (when I knew it was going to rain), and about the extra weight of a five-man tent, I put my trust in my colleague and dutifully purchased a Juno 500.

Weight: Not a problem! I happily carried it home and set it up in the garden (see pic) with relative ease. The Juno has only one pole, centre-based, so the pegs are integral to the structure of the tent. Luckily, the five-sided design made erecting simple, and I happily packed the tepee back into the bag in readiness.

Upon getting to the site, the size of the tent did worry me and my fellow campers - however, we managed to squeeze it in with our friend's tents (all in the obligatory green and blue). Even though there was a fair gust abounding, the tepee remained amazingly stable - this all with only one central pole and pegs keeping it upright! In fact - the pole did not move at all.

Rain: Another non-issue! Although condensation was abundant when there were eight people in the tent, the tent did not let the water through - although, this was light rain and not a torrential downpour (I don't recommend this tent for Glastonbury).

Another good feature was the zip-down front of the attached groundsheet, which was ideal for slipping on our wellies whith the zip down, and keeping out the wet when zipped up.

All in all, the Juno Tepee 500 impressed both us and campers around us - easy to set up, easy to get into, easy on the eye. However, be warned that there is no mesh inside this tent - if the weather had been hotter, bugs could have been a problem, and there is little insulation from the cold. But we were lucky to have blindingly fantastic weather, and an even more fantastic time - this tent was festival-perfect.