Oxfordshire Children’s Diabetes Service
Children’s Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU
Horton Hospital, Banbury OX16 9AL
Festivals and Diabetes
Going to a music festival with friends is popular with young people. The larger ones, such as Reading
festival over the August bank holiday weekend, include camping. There are a few things you can do
to make sure you stay safe with your diabetes whilst enjoying the event along with everyone else.
Keeping your kit safe:
Important items such as money, mobile phone, insulin, blood glucose testing kit, glucose tablets (or
other hypo treatment) need to be kept safe on your person. Carrying all this in a back pack is one
way, but often they become a nuisance to carry, get put down and then get lost. Carrying these in
your pockets is ok but pockets are easily “picked” when in a large crowd so things do get stolen.
Pouch packs that go around your waist, under your clothing are the best option for keeping money,
phone, insulin, needles and blood glucose meter safe. If your blood glucose meter is too large for this,
ask at clinic before you go for a small one just to take to the festival with you.
Check on the festival website before you go if there will be lockers available. You don’t want to keep
everything in there, because it will be a nuisance to keep going back for things, but you can keep a
spare set of everything there in case yours are stolen or lost. So, store away spare insulin, needles,
meter and strips, hypo treatment etc.
Festival restrictions:
You are not usually allowed to take fluids into the main arena from the campsite – (this includes water
as well as alcohol!) You will be “patted down” on entry to check you haven’t hidden away items you
are not supposed to take in. So, it is likely they will find your diabetes kit so you will need medical ID
(Medic alert) or a letter confirming you have diabetes in case they don’t believe you when you explain
what you have with you and why!
Long days, long nights!
The campsite will be noisy – of course. So, it’s likely that you will be partying all day and most of the
night! Try to ensure you take your insulin, particularly your long acting insulin (Lantus) at your usual
time. If this is going to be inconvenient i.e. just at the time the headliners are due on stage, change
the time for the weekend for a few days before you go. Having Lantus a bit earlier, perhaps around 5
– 6pm when you are likely to be eating as well and also having Novorapid may be a good time. This
helps to ensure it does not get forgotten.
You are likely to get very tired over the weekend – no sleep, lots of dancing etc so you may find your
blood glucose levels are lower than usual. Regular testing and good adjustment of your doses should
make sure you avoid too many hypos and so don’t have your weekend disrupted.
Keep some water and snacks and hypo treatment in your tent - you never know when you will need
them.
Medical facilities:
All festivals will have a medical tent where you can get help if you need it. Make sure you and your
friends know where it is (find it on the first day!) in case you need help, advice or support.
In an emergency, if you are wearing a Medic alert, medical staff will look for this and so be alerted to
your diabetes and not just think you are drunk!
You are more than likely to be offered drugs during the weekend, either to buy or to try – Just say NO
HAVE A GREAT TIME!
Please email any comments you may have about this document to: Mary.Cheeseman@ouh.nhs.uk
Paediatric Diabetes Team, May 2013
Review May 2016