Festival fever:Festival season kicks off with Oxegen on July 10th: there's still time to upgrade the experience with a decent tent. Outwell's Jersey medium (€140 www.greatoutdoors.ie) is a roomy, three-person pop-up tent with all the essential bits: two separate layers to keep the moisture on the outside, fluorescent yellow zips and guy ropes to aid night-time navigation, and internal vents for air circulation.
It all folds up, after a bit of practise and some intensive revision of the instructions, into a thin, over-the-shoulder circular bag that’s too big to fit into a backpack but light enough to carry from the car park to the campground.
- For those hardy parents brave enough to take their baby into restaurants, the “washable, squashable” travel high chair (€39.99 www.pressieport.ie) will strap to the back of most chairs, whether they have solid or open backs. It’ll easily fold down to fit inside a handbag, and beats either lugging a plastic chair around or trying to cradle the baby and feed yourself at the same time. You could be tempted to use it outside of mealtimes to buy yourself a few moments of peace.
- Now the accommodation and eating arrangements are sorted, how exactly do you get to Punchestown? For the bargain-basement price of €10, a Dundrum Maps Comprehensive Road Atlas (published by Collins) will not only deliver you to the door, it’ll warn you of speed cameras and high- accident zones en route. The maps also mark all of Ireland’s Blue Flag and Green coast beaches.