Best tents for festivals UK 2022: easy pop-up, glamping, tee-pees and bell tents for a great night’s sleep

Grab three of your mates and camp in comfort at your next festival by bringing along Decathlon’s Arpenaz 4.2.

We love the layout of this spacious tent, which features a two-person bedroom at each end and a big living area with standing height in the centre, with roomy doors that can also be opened up on hot days.

The Arpenaz is waterproof and wind-resistant, and at just under 12kg it’s not prohibitively heavy.

This tent definitely punches above this modest price tag.

We would always recommend investing in the best-quality tent you can afford – with care a good tent will last you for years of festivals and family adventures.

And you get a lot of bang for your buck with Decathlon’s Air Seconds Blackout.

This roomy design has three bedrooms, sleeping six adults comfortably or offering loads of storage space for four people, plus a really roomy living area with big windows.

This is an ‘air’ tent, so instead of faffing with poles you simply inflate the hollow tubes that hold the tent in place – the whole shebang only takes 10 minutes to pitch.

Blackout bedrooms are the cherry on the cake.

Roomy glamping tents are brilliant – but at a festival where space is at a premium, you might struggle to find somewhere to put them up.

Enter the Robens Fairbank Yukon, the perfect compromise between cotton glamping tipi and sensible compact camping tent. It takes a few tries to erect this tent quickly, but once you do there’s plenty of room – ideal if you’re tall.

If you’re heading to a festival abroad, you’ll also find the cotton and polyester blend of the tent fabric much cooler to sleep under in hot weather.

A great quality option for two or three people.

Taking little ones to a kid’s festival? They’ll love sharing this spacious and simple tipi, which has a tall ceiling and plenty of room for three or four children or two adults to bed down in.

Eurohike’s Teepee is also at a great price point considering it packs in a good waterproofing level at 2,000mm, a tough steel frame and a great thick groundsheet that feels like it’d last for years.

A simple, fuss-free choice you could also use as a playhouse in the garden, and at under 5kg a good weight for festivals.

Mountain Warehouse do a great range of basic and affordable festival tents from just £19.99, and their fuss-free Festival Fun design does what it does on the tin.

There’s a decent groundsheet, a mesh door to keep things cool and keep bugs out, and the sturdy poles are easy to erect.

The tent is unlikely to withstand a torrential downpour, but for under £20 it’s a bright budget option. And you’ll never lose the pink version in a sea of plain tents at a festival campsite…

Pretend you’re off on a posh glamping retreat in this very smart bell tent, which can sleep up to eight people around its central pole.

We think Hi-Gear’s bell tent is perfect for a family of four or for a group of friends to share, and its highly breathable mix of polyester and cotton keeps rain out and makes the tent cool even in the heat, so it’s ideal for the sunniest summer festivals.

The hefty steel poles of the High-Gear bell tent are surprisingly easy to pitch, and feel solid and long-lasting. This tent weighs a hefty 30kg, but it does come with a great wheeled trolley bag.

You can always rely on Vango tents to perform brilliantly everywhere from festivals to wild camping adventures.

The three-man Alpha is rather Tardis-like – it doesn’t take up a lot of space but inside there’s a bedroom that will comfortably fit two people and a roomy protected porch for storing all your belongings.

We like the plastic window in the porch for extra light, the colour coded poles, which make for quick and fuss-free pitching, and the plentiful pockets and hooks.

This tent also boasts a blackout bedroom for a better night’s sleep and 3,000mm of waterproofing – great features considering it’s priced at under £100.

At 17kg, the Vango Joro isn’t a lightweight tent, but it makes up for that in quality, and it’s worth hefting it all the way to your camping spot if you want a plush and roomy place to live for the festival weekend.

The Joro sleeps two or three adults in comfort or will fit a family of four with smaller children in its two separate bedrooms. You can stand up fully inside, and there’s plenty of room in the bedrooms for blow-up airbeds.

The Joro is also waterproof to a hefty 3,000mm. If you want to invest in a tent that’ll do everything from summer camping holidays to withstanding a downpour and making a rather palatial home at your next festival, this is the design to pick.

Planning on dancing all night and sleeping all morning? You need a blackout tent. Lined with ‘Nightfall’ material that keeps daylight out, the Eurohike Cairns ensures a good night’s sleep – no waking up as the sun comes streaming in.

The Cairns is also waterproofed to a whopping 2,000mm – ideal if the forecast is looking stormy all weekend. This tent fits three at a pinch but is well-sized for two people, with small porch for storing kit and room for a double airbed in the bedroom.

A great all-rounder for just under £100.

Partying with a big gang? Our top pick for larger groups is the roomy Coleman Cortes Octagon dome.

This geodesic beauty is categorised as an eight-man tent but we’d suggest sleeping six plus gear, or four with tons of living room (kids will also love its spaceship-like looks and bright colours), or use it as a communal living room/dancing space at a festival.

Big doors mean you can ventilate the tent easily on hot days, the dome is easy to erect in 10-15 minutes and the waterproof fabric feels like great quality. The zips are on the flimsy side, so go easy when using them.

At £215, the Cortes Octagon is a bargainous and generously sized gem.