It’S that time of year again, writes Olivia Rosenthall.  You’re agitatedly refreshing the Reading, Bestival, Latitude and Glastonbury Line Up pages online to see who will be playing this summer.

Debating between the UK’s best weekends of music, beer, camping, beer, rain and beer, the excitement just cannot be contained. However, as much as we all enjoy festivals, we can’t help but notice the glitches.

Festivals, as us poor scrounging students know, are expensive. Deciding what festival you want to go to is one matter, but deciding who you are going to a festival with is another. One student who went with a group of university friends claimed to have a lot of trouble with one of the group members because of her boozing.

“She was too drunk and kept getting lost. She became a liability and started to grate on all of us, which nearly ruined the weekend.”

Sometimes who you attend festivals with can truly affect your experience, which at the end of the day, should be none other than cracking.

That said, we’ve all had that one minor chink in the chain that threatened to ruin the weekend. Be it the painful friend that couldn’t handle their drink, the begrudging girlfriend or boyfriend that can’t stand your mates, or the hanger-on you brought with you that won’t say a word to anyone.

So what is the way forward? Some our students give us their opinions and experiences regarding music festivals…

ON GOING IN BIG GROUPS:
German and American Studies student, Rebecca Hand says: “It’s good to go with a big group of friends, but it’s kind of good to have people camping in different places, so if you get really annoyed with someone, you can just chill in another campsite instead.”

ON GOING IN SMALLER GROUPS:
Economics student, Niall Oulten, 19 says: “I think festivals aren’t really about going with large groups of friends, whilst it can be fun, it’s nicer to go in small groups. But it’s also about getting to know direct tent neighbours at the festival…then you have someone you can sort of trust to keep an eye on your tents when you’re away from the campsite. (And you also then have people to have banter with after the music finishes)”

ON GOING WITH YOUR PARTNER:
English Literature student, Hannah Etienne, 19, says: “I’ve been with my partner with a group of our friends and that was fun. But I’d still feel fine with just my partner.”
English Literature student, Danielle Morgan, 20, says: “If you’re into the same bands and artists it would be an amazing experience that would create really interesting memories to look back on.”

ON GOING WITH FRIENDS FROM HOME:
English Literature Student, Charlotte Bunker, 20, says: “I went with my best friend and we were fine. Even used our Wiley charm to blag her being 18.”