Paste's Summer Festival Guide 2010: How to Not Die at a Festival

The medical tent may not seem like the hotspot at any music festival, but it’s there for a reason: These events are all fun and games until somebody gets hurt—or worse. In eight years of Bonnaroo, there have been seven deaths; a 39-year-old man died of a heart attack last year at Lollapalooza; and in 2000, at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, eight fans were crushed to death in a stampede. Some of these episodes were more preventable than others. (One of the Bonnaroo deaths reportedly came when a man hopped a fence, walked onto an interstate and was struck by Ricky Skaggs’ tour bus.) In most cases, common-sense tips like the following can keep you alive:

Drink something other than beer
Like water, for example. “I think it’s important if it’s over 80 degrees to drink at least one 16-ounce bottle of water per hour,” advises Dr. Rahul Khare of Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “At least three to four bottles of water per day is a good rule of thumb.” But that’s just if water is all you’re drinking. “Alcohol can increase urine rate, thus adversely affecting hydration,” warns Dr. Craig Crandall of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas. So you might want to up the H2O if you’re downing tons of booze.

Set a meeting place
“People will get intoxicated and they lose each other in the crowd, then they can’t find a friend,” says Sgt. Keith Bazzle of the Austin Police Department, who’s worked at the Austin City Limits fest. “Their friend is probably at the medical tent or laid up under a tree somewhere and trying to get in shape. So that’s the problem I see, people not having a rally point.”

Trust your claustrophobic instincts
“If you feel uncomfortable, don’t ignore that—move somewhere else,” says Paul Wertheimer, founder and head of international group Crowd Management Strategies. “It’s a personal alarm that something might happen, so move to the periphery.”