Isle of Wight festival

So I've been camping at the IoW festival a couple of times with friends. Both times we had scorching hot weather. We went the year Rolling Stones headlined, and the year Neil Young and Razorlight played. We had a lot of fun! But there's some stuff I would have done differently:
Ok, so what to take:

• Cheap tent that you don't mind getting a bit ruined. Because the following will probably happen: 

- Someone will spill beer in the tent
- Someone will vomit in the tent
- The tents are so crammed together that people trip over the guy ropes and fall onto other people's tents without meaning to. Especially when drunk. Do you really want a 6'3 stoner falling onto your tent in the dead of night? Well, no one wants that, but it will happen, and your tent will never be the same.
- If it's a bad year like last year, the tent will flood. If you don't dry it out after and provide some tent TLC, it will go mouldy.
-In conclusion - I took my own tent both times, it was a really nice one, an engagement present from my auntie. Although it has survived to tell the tale, that tent has seen things no tent ever should see. I stressed the whole time we were at the festival that it would blow away or collapse or get set on fire. (Well, I didn't exactly stress, but I did find myself thinking about it during The Prodigy set. Not cool).
(Note - I thought it was ok to leave tents behind cause they go to charity - but someone has kindly pointed out that the tents actually go to landfill - SO DON'T LEAVE YOUR TENT BEHIND!!)

• Now that you have your cheap tent, you must know how to recognise it in some way, as there are thousands of other cheap tents rammed into a field, and you don't want to get into the wrong one by accident. Or wander round lost for hours and then pass out near the toilets. I have seen this happen. So it's a good idea to put some string or some kind of identity marker on it. Nothing TOO obvious though - you don't want to draw attention to it too much in case someone comes along and flattens your tent. 

• Take a torch with you in order to identify said tent, and also to see where the guy ropes are so you don't trip over them. Well, you will trip over the guy ropes, but at least you should do it less often if you have a torch. And if you do fall, there's always other tents around to cushion your fall. 

• Everything takes twice as long. Seriously, the water taps were like a mile away. And I learnt this lesson the hard way - we decided to have a BBQ on the Saturday, but by the time we'd walked into the nearest town (which was like 45 mins away), bought stuff from the supermarket, walked back again, set it all up, got cooking, WE'D MISSED AMY WINEHOUSE!!!!

• In fact, don't worry about cooking stuff. It's a festival. Just buy stuff there. Yeah it's overpriced, but there's loads of variety to choose from. 

• But if you're like me (I get really cranky when hungry), pack lots of mars bars and snaffle them when your friends aren't looking. Cause when you've elbowed your way through the crowds so you're in spitting distance of the stage, you don't want to leave your spot unless you absolutely have to. And you will be there many hours.

• Oh yeah, and try and take cereal bars etc. for breakfast so you don't faff around with milk which you'll have to buy/carry/ and will get nicked/spilt/go off anyway. I took my pocket rocket (see previous post) so we could all have a cup of tea. 

• Wet wipes!!! Cause people chuck stuff during the concerts, and you hope it's beer but  let's face it, it's a plastic tumbler of wee. It's gross. So take wet wipes cause showering is out for the weekend. 

• Alcohol hand gel and toilet paper in your little rucksack cause the portaloos are...well...you can imagine. 

• Cards or connect4 or a book or something to do whilst you're sat waiting in between acts. Cause there's a lot of time waiting around.

• So you leave your tent mid-afternoon, and you don't return till the small hours of the morning. Whilst it may be scorching in the mid-day sun, it's pretty cold at 2am when it takes half an hour to walk back to your tent. So stuff a cardigan or poncho into your rucksack. Cause I really hate being cold! 

• Big rucksacks are good cause you'll be doing a lot of walking to and from ferry ports/train stations/bus stations. You don't want to try and lug a suitcase around a field. And then little day rucksacks are good for valuables, mars bars etc. 
• The first time we took the train down then hopped on the ferry, but the second time we drove and I left my car with this guy in Portsmouth as part of the parkatmyhouse scheme. Simples! 

Hope this helps! Does anyone have any other tips to add?