Read our 2008 camping special

Obviously, it could be sunny. But are you willing to risk your festival experience being tainted - again - by floods, something that looks like trench foot and the sight of everything you own sinking into a belching mud pool?

From luxury tepees with furniture and furs to carpeted cabins, via your own 10-man tour bus complete with booze rider, here are the best options for kicking back in style on the UK festival circuit.

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BACKGROUND

• Sahara blues in Mali with Robert Plant

• Jigging on Jersey

• Rocking all over the world

• Music under the Tuscan Sun

• Fjord fiesta at Iceland's outer limits

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• Research 87 articles in Music and Travel

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• Music under the Tuscan Sun

Donington Park, Leicestershire

June 13-15

In a masterstroke of marketing, this heaviest of rock fests is providing a unique accommodation option. Once you’ve taken your fill of Kiss, the Offspring, Lost Prophets and Motörhead, you can slink back to the VIP area (or, as they call it, the RIP area) and kick back in your own luxury tour bus. Sleeping 10, your superstar package comes with a £100 drinks rider, DVD, PlayStation, kitchen, lounges and bunk-style beds, as well as a three-day festival pass. And commemorative T-shirts. What could be more “rock” than that?

Cost: £6,150 (sleeps 10). Tickets: £130; 8-12s, £75; www.downloadfestival.co.uk

GLASTONBURY

Worthy Farm, Somerset

June 27-29

There’s a danger that once you enter Camp Kerala, set up on a privately owned farm three minutes’ walk from Gate C on the main site, you might not bother with all that festival malarkey at all. There are 75 Indian shikar tents (20ft x 13ft) here, similar to those used by maharajahs on their hunting trips, each one containing a bedroom with a king-size double bed, a mattress from Italy and a duck-down duvet from Hungary — and they all, obviously, have an ensuite bathroom. A pair of VIP festival tickets with backstage access is included in the price, as is — with the exception of booze — pretty much everything else. Yes, even slippers.

Cost: £8,225 for two; www.campkerala.com

WAKESTOCK

Blenheim Palace, Oxford

June 27-29

A festival with a difference, this one, as it comes with added wakeboarding (a cross between snowboarding and water- skiing). This is the first event

of its kind to be held in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, with the watersports taking place on the lake in front of Winston Churchill’s birthplace. Last year’s sister event (in Cardigan Bay, North Wales) drew the Bravery and Mark Ronson, so the music side of things will be tasty. For cool campers, there are tepees and customised double-decker buses that sleep 11, with power points and bunk beds. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

Cost: price for the bus to be confirmed. Tickets: £85 (no under-16s); £110 for camping; www.wakestock.co.uk

LARMER TREE

Salisbury, Wiltshire

July 16-20

This five-dayer is as much about self-expression as it is about lying in a field and listening to music. There are stacks of workshops for kids and grown-ups, a dressing-up day, massage tents and street-theatre troupes. At bedtime, there are posh tepees, with matting, rugs, a table and lantern, and extras such as sheepskins, cushions and hangings available, too.

Cost: three-man tepee, from £338. Tickets: £172; children from £117; www.larmertree festival.co.uk

CAMP BESTIVAL

Lulworth Castle, Dorset

July 18-20

New this year, Camp Bestival takes the success of Bestival — the three-day jamboree on the Isle of Wight every summer — and brings it to Dorset, with plenty of attention paid to the camping side of things. As well as regular camping, the plush options include camper vans, tepees and bivouacs, but our favourite is the podpad. Solar powered, with fitted carpet, shelving and a lockable front door, this dinky little two- manner will make recovering from the attentions of the Dorset Cream Tea Appreciation Society all the more bearable.

Cost: podpads, £325; www.podpads.com. Tickets: £120; 13-15s, £60; www.campbestival.net

THE SECRET GARDEN PARTY

Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

July 24-27

Smaller in scale but no less bonkers for that, the SGP draws about 6,000 people and does a rather good job of picking up-and-coming acts that go on to be bigger and better: KT Tunstall, Lily Allen, the Hoosiers and Hard-Fi have all played before their star was fully bright. On top of your bog-standard patch of grass, there are yurts and buses available.

Cost: prices for yurts and buses are to be confirmed. Tickets: £125; 14-17s, £100; www.secretgardenparty.com

CROISSANT NEUF

Usk, Monmouthshire

August 15-17

Having run the romantically named alternative-technology field at Glastonbury for the past 15 years, Croissant Neuf is into the second year of its own environmentally friendly festival. All the power on site, including the sound and lighting rig, comes from solar panels, and all the food and drink is organic and locally sourced. There’s a burlesque-themed masked ball, a lantern procession, workshops and loads for kids and families, as well as bands such as Nizlopi and Banco De Gaia performing for just 1,500 people. For those looking for upgraded camping, there are posh yurts, complete with wood-burning stoves, carpets, rugs, tables and beds.

Cost: yurts, from £200 for two. Tickets: £75; 5-16s, £30; www.partyneuf.co.uk

ELECTRIC PICNIC

Stradbally Estate, Co Laois, Ireland

August 29-31

This year’s line-up is still being pieced together, but last year saw Björk, the Beastie Boys and Primal Scream do battle, so you can expect some decent names to serenade you before you head back to your chosen boutique-camping option. For that authentic “Bournemouth circa 1981” holiday experience, we’re saying get yourself a beach hut. These brightly painted, two-man beauties have a double bed and a veranda, and aren’t going to blow away if/when the weather does what our weather does.

Cost: beach huts, from £978 for two. Tickets: £173; under- 12s, free; www.electricpicnic.ie

- Some prices are still to be confirmed for this year. All prices for accommodation are for the duration of each festival