I'm Phil, the founder of Deva Fest, and I am going to let you into a secret. 

I am not a fan of camping. 

I was built for comfort, not speed and the thought of grappling with hundreds of poles and sheets of canvas in a field when I could be opening a can of something cold fills me with a slight fear.

If you have got this far you are probably a bit like me....someone who looks in awe at people with fancy camping rigs with awnings, camping stoves, neatly laid out lines of utensils and packs of things to cook on them.

If you are one of those fancy rig people you can go and do something else. Nothing to see here. You've got this (and I am jealous). No need to read on!

Camp Deva glamping is the second most viewed page on our entire website, and I have a theory....it's because there are lots of Phils who also don't "do" camping and want someone to have put a tent up for them so they can just rock up and get stuck in. 

But Camp Deva isn't for everyone, in that it's not in everyone's budget. Sure it's comfy and you don't have to go through the tent construction bit, but you are paying for the convenience. Many of you are happy to do this - we can tell because it's nearly sold out.

But for the more budget conscious there is "another way", a hack.

I proudly present the answer for the camping bluffer. Actually, I'm going to retire that word and replace it with "novice".

I give you the air tent! 

For less than it costs to hire a glamping tent for the weekend you can buy and keep this ingenious bit of kit which some smart tent designing genius has designed for "novices" just like you and me (if you got this far we are kindred spirits).

^ my air tent laid out on a trial run at home and ready for a bit of pump action

It comes in a bag on wheels and you simply peg out the base and pump up the spines (we like to sing Pump up the Jam by Technotronic during this bit). The tent is up in literally minutes without the need to attach pole D to sprocket H whilst standing on one leg.

When you are done? Simple! Deflate it, take out the pegs and roll it bag into the bag on wheels it comes with.

This https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/16618538/berghaus-adhara-700-nightfall-tent-16618538/4593101/ sleeps SEVEN people (albeit cosily) and is just £399. It's very similar to the tent I bought (a Berghaus Air 8) and it's now been to around 10 music festivals. Others are available and you can spend less (or more!) if you want to, it's just that I've found the Berghaus stuff to be reliable and it does what it says on the tin (bag).

That tent is pretty much the same size as the 5 person glamping tents you can book in Camp Deva.

It has black out bedrooms, but if you are a light sleeper I'd recommend an eye mask and some earplugs - tents are not sound insulated and with a few thousand people sharing your field there will be a snorer.

You'll need a mallet or something hammer like to put the tent pegs in the ground, but they come with the pump you need, and with the right attachment that pump will also work for the airbeds you will also need .

Trial run it all before you come just to make sure all the bits are there that should have been in the bag, and to make sure you have the right attachment to get the pump that comes with the tent talking to the airbed.

Other than that you will need some bedding or a sleeping bag. Personally I bring bedding as it feels more like a real bed, and remember that tents are typically not insulated for heat either, and it can get cold at night in the UK so bring something cosy to sleep in.

Other than that I pack enough fold away camping chairs for everyone, and at Deva you can take those in to the festival so they double up as seats for the day as well as back at your rig.

I don't take any cooking stuff with me. I get that for some people it's a big part of the experience, but I prefer to eat the street food in the festival and my bbq skills are limited to those disposable ones, which we don't allow at Deva (no naked flames on anything just so you know). 

When we go to a festival we have a ceremonial stopping off at a supermarket on the way to fill a cool box with beer, cider (you can bring those into the campsite but not the festival), soft drinks, and of course the obligatory snacks and light meals which will supplement our street food intake.

There are showers and loos in all campsites at Deva, but bring a torch for the midnight wee dash, and the showers will be busy at some times, not at others (that's just life) - peak shower times are when you would think - 8am til around 11. Oh and bring a towel and some toiletries.

It's a good idea to take a flag to mark your tent out, because there will be fields of other tents which look similar (hint - not the "it's 5 o'clock somewhere one" I bought off Amazon which everyone has - I can only apologise to the family from Sutton Coldfield whose tent I mistakenly tried to get into).

Bring some games as well for the invariable down time (Uno!), and invest in a couple of 20,000 aMh + battery packs which will keep phones and iPads charged all weekend. 

For someone who just isn't a fan of camping I can now proudly boast to have been to around 10 festivals with the fam in the air tent, and for someone who doesn't "do" tents I've found it a dream. 

Had I bought that air tent for £399 that would have worked out at less than £40 for each festival, which is less than 10% of what a glamping tent costs to hire for Deva (and some festivals will gladly charge you twice what we do for glamping).

And the tent is yours to use not just for festivals, but for camping any time you want to! 

Let's not get carried away....