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I am a large festival virgin (by that I mean I have never been to a large festival not I have never been to a festival but weigh 25stone!) and am off to Latitude next weekend with my teenage son.

I think I am fairly clued up on what to take (have read other posts on here and been compiling a list) - but all ideas greatfully received) but am now starting to panic over certain things and wonder if anyone could fill me in about :

a) Toilets - are they REALLY that bad? I am taking a BWL and cat litter for night time but should I plan to use this during the day too if the loos are that bad? If they are totally terrible my son will throw a wobbly and want to come home!

b) Tent size - On all the photos of previous years everyone seems to be in individual pop up tents but I was planning on taking our 4 man vis-a-vis so if the weather was particularly bad at least we would have somewhere to sit. Is this a definite no-no?

c) Rain - If it is a total washout do people still 'go for it' and just get soaked. Whats the best way to cope?

d) Cooking - Normally when we camp we go with EHU for cooking buy this time I will only have a campingaz bluet and a trangia. I'm sure we will buy most of our food but wanted to be able to make tea. Question is - where do I wash up?

I'm sure there will be more questions as I think of them but if anyone could help it might stave off a few more grey hairs.

Don't panic!!!

I haven't been to Latitude myself, is it big or a small? We ony go to the smaller ones now, there the toilets are usually fine, very clean. If it's a family friendly festival, they usually make more effort with the cleanliness too. Basically if you go to festivals that attracts a gangs of teens just allowed away on thier own for the first time, or really big festivals like Leeds or Reading-you get the mess that goes with these things. Try and take some hand sanitser gel if you can find it-it often runs out in even the cleanest of portaloos, you can get little handbag sized ones.

Check on the FAQs on thier website about tents, most people take the small ones as its just somewhere to sleep, they dont hang around in them. There is often a seperate field set aside for "family camping" which allows bigger tents, and is quieter so kids can get to sleep/ wont wake late nighters up early in the morning.

Don't worry about the rain-take wellies and waterproofs. Oragnisers usually make sure there are plenty of undercover areas to shelter in in various guises-big top tent stages, cafes, kids areas, whatever, there will always be somewhere to shelter.

There are always water taps around the camp sites whichever festival ive been too, you can ether collect it and take it to your tent to wash up or you may be lucky and they provide proper washing up areas?

As I say, I havent been to this particular festival but check the FAQs, these usually answer any worries.

Have a brilliant time!

Just saw it was a large festival, sorry!!

If washing up is a problem then why not just use disposable stuff for the weekend and keep to simple foods like sandwiches and cakes if its just for a couple of days? take along some long life bread and a few cans of fillings such as tuna, cornbeef, and chopped ham ect and a few packs of the cheese spreads triangles which tend to keep better than butter or margarine in warm surroundings, and help to make a more tasty sandwich too.

One word of warning would be to try and avoid the festivals own catering vans if your on a fairly tight budget, their prices can be whey over the top of what you would expect to pay at a local takeaway.

Julia