Not only am I a TBF noob, I am a camping noob! Any recommendations on what I should buy to tent four people at the 2019 TBF in Town Park?
Thanks in advance…
4 adults? Two couples? 2 Adults 2 kids? 4 friends?
Who and how the folks are related would make a difference in what type of or number of tents. Also budget comes into play.
I’d start by figuring out what you’ll be sleeping on (cot, air mattress, foam pad) remember it gets around freezing at night. Then base your tent size/number on room required for bedding of your choice. Most the name brand tent companies have similar quality products.
Good thoughts. Thanks, ToddG.
If you use air mattresses be sure to put blankets under and on top of them to lay on. The air inside the mattress will pull your body heat from you. It gets cold fast at altitude.
What Matt says is true. We use an Alps Mountaineering queen size air mattress, its a hair smaller than a traditional queen, and only about 3-4 inches thick when inflated. We put a down comforter on top of the mattress before putting on sheets and blankets with our cold weather sleeping bags on hand if needed, so far we’ve maintained comfort through sub 20 degree weather without bags. We use a three person dome style tent with doors on either side of the bed and each door having a small vestibule with only a bout 14 inches of space on either side of mattress for storing clothing. For years we used the Cabellas Alaskan Guide tent its super solid but not a packing tent. So currently we use 3 person backpacking tents with a large enough floor plan to accommodate the mattress. For the teenager he uses a two person backpacking tent, which at festival nicely fits his Cabellas cot and he’s cozy in his old school 0 degree mountaineering bag.Together the two tents don’t take up much space, and if everyone was in sleeping bags and ground pads would comfortably sleep 5.
get something with a shade screen. nights get cold, but days are scorching in the sun!
Hey Brian :wave
I’ve been enjoying the REI Kingdom series. I have a 4 and a 6. You can stand up in them, great features, only down is price and in high winds you need some good tie offs.
Like Todd & Matt said, it’s what you do inside that really counts. With the possibility of extremes in temperature, you tend to bring more stuff. You want to be able to secure everything inside or have a good tarp and
/or Easy Up shelter to give you more space if your tent is smaller.
Cheers and Welcome!
:cheers
I don’t have recommendations on a tent - we had a 6 person Kelty tent and used an EZup for extra room. My only suggestion is to have a warm sleeping situation - we froze, I do sleep “cold” when camping but I wasn’t prepared for how cold I got. We slept on cots - I had a 20 degree bag my friend had a 30 degree bag and we both froze at night - I don’t know if it was sleeping on the cots with no insulation under us or what??? I car camp often and thought I was prepared. During the day the sun was intense, shade of the EZup was great, but as soon as that sun went down the temperature dropped and we were freezing - coming from Texas we were not expecting to feel so cold even though the temperature was in the 40-50’s at night.
Maggie,
Does your cot include a pad, or did you put a pad on it that you slept on? The key is having an insulating barrier between you and the ground, or air in the case of a cot or air mattress. Your sleeping bag compresses under you and loses much of it’s heat retention, unlike the part of the bag over you that stays lofty. Even a thick blanket will keep your body heat from getting sucked away! :flower
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Maggie,
Does your cot include a pad, or did you put a pad on it that you slept on? The key is having an insulating barrier between you and the ground, or air in the case of a cot or air mattress. Your sleeping bag compresses under you and loses much of it’s heat retention, unlike the part of the bag over you that stays lofty. Even a thick blanket will keep your body heat from getting sucked away! :flower
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No I didn’t bring a pad - it was one of those items when we were packing I thought I wouldn’t need - I even had it in my packing pile but left it at home at the last minute because we were bringing so much stuff. I know in the future to bring one - I even have a nice backpacking one that has a high rating. Oh well - I learned my lesson LOL. When we camp we sleep on the ground with a pad, never used a cot, so when my friend said “Ill bring the cots” I just thought great - I wouldn’t have to sleep on the ground 
I used to work for Big Agnes in Steamboat, so I’m partial to their products (I sure miss that employee discount!).
In the past, I’ve brought a 4-person tent with a big vestibule for storage (the Big Agnes King Creek 4 - now out of production, but a Big House with vestibule will do the trick). This year I’m bringing my Red Canyon 4 (with lights, a fan, and a solar panel), and a Sugarloaf shelter for our camp’s picking/cooking spot. Before I got my BA bag and pad setup, I slept on an REI cot. Those things are super comfy, but you need extra insulation for Telluride. I put a wool blend blanket on under the bottom sheet and then made the bed up with a top sheet, down comforters and blankets. It stayed cozy. I’ll probably bring the cot this year and just rely on my insulated pad and bag and maybe an extra blanket for warmth.
Anyway, Big Agnes is spendy, but it lasts forever, they have great customer service, and their stuff is awesome.
I recommend focusing on features rather than brand.
The best TBG festival tents are waterproof to extremely water resistant (taped seams or you seal them yourself), have full (or virtually full) coverage rain flys but the fly can also be easily removed or rolled up out of the way, screened windows that can be zipped up, let lots of air flow or be well covered by fly, decent poles and materials and room to actually want to hang out in.
Think 80+ degree, full sun at altitude hot. Then think 40 degree, raining cold. You want a tent that will do both of these for you, yours and everyone’s stuff.
Almost all my tents (and I have many) were bought lightly used and have come from REI garage sales or craigslist. Brands include REI, Marmot, Big Agnes and Coleman.
Oh- forget manufacturers’ people number designations, those are for tetris or backpacking. For festival purposes, a 4-6 person is good for 2, a 6-8 person good for 4, etc…
My last recommendation is to reconsider that 4 people in a tent plan, unless they’re your kids, and even then…
Thanks to everyone for these magnificent suggestions. Your words will be a comfort to me and my family come June.
We just got the new tent we ordered in the mail. Pretty excited to set it up and check it out. It’s a four person tent by Big Agnes called big house 4, and we splurged for the extra vestibule.
We have an REI 4 person that we purchased in 2002. Still going strong and still doesn’t leak! As for warmth at night we use a queen sized air mattress on the ground. We have two thermarest type pads on top of the mattress with a fitted sheet over all of that. Then 20 degree sleeping bags with a blanket and comforter over that. One thing I can say is we are not cold. However make sure you really test your air mattress before you head out. Ours lost air at an alarming rate and made for some interesting nights!
Is there a store to rent camping gear-tent, pad, air mattress, between montrose and Telluride? Flying in, not sure if I can keep under baggage limits. Thank You!
Not sure about renting, probably one of the more local festivarians could answer that. But, our friend last year flew into Montrose last year. He brought a wheeled suitcase mostly for clothes, and a backpacking pack with small tent, sleeping bag, pad, folding lowback camp chair, collapsable cooler, coffee mug, beer glass, plate, bowl and utensils. We already had a space saved for him as he didn’t get there till late Wednesday night. He ate all his breakfast in town, and his lunches and dinners in the festival grounds. It worked well for him and the limited time frame he had for travel. This year though he’s driving and arriving on landrush day!
You can usually mail a package to yourself to any post office general delivery. I haven’t done this in years, but it worked out well. I believe they hold general deliveries for something like 30 days. You could call the Telluride PO and find out the details. Then you can ship your own gear, and ship it home after.
If your solo, camping in Town Park or Warner then you should be able to get away with very bare necessities camp set up. Might want a few more comfort items if your at Mary E or Lawson, and its more difficult to get a prepared meal whenever you like.
Couple of things: search Montrose gear and you might want to talk to someone at 970 Sports Rewind.
Like Todd said- you can mail yourself a box of gear “General Delivery” to the Telluride Post Office. The Post Office is right outside Town Park, an easy, quick walk from any campsite in TP or Warner.
If it gets close and crunchy time, throw it back here on the forum- there’s a few gear junkies (like me) that may be able to help, depending on where you plan to camp.
Post all of your gear needs in the Gear Share section of the forum to see who may have stuff to share.
Hell, I can probably cover just about everything you might need since I have to have my camper now. :flower
Todd, you’re gonna love that one, especially with the vestibule for all your gear. I’m taking my new Big Agnes Sugarloaf (it’s a big screened group shelter) to Old Settlers’ in a couple of months for a test run. I’m ready for festival camping season to start!