Festival & Camping Tech: Gear Up for a Weekend Off-Grid

There's a particular kind of dread that hits around day two of a festival: your phone is on 8%, your torch batteries died at 2am, and the only thing colder than the showers is the realisation that you've got two more days of this. The good news? A little tech planning goes a very long way. Whether you're heading to a muddy field for a music festival or pitching up somewhere more serene, here's the kit worth packing — all available at Maplin.

Let's be honest — power is the big one. Your phone is your ticket, your map, your camera, and your way of finding your mates when you've drifted apart somewhere between the festival main stage and the chip van.

Power banks are the bare minimum. A compact option like the Maplin 20,000mAh power bank with integrated cables will top up your phone and slips into a pocket, but for a full festival weekend you'll want something with serious capacity — the ALOGIC Ark 27,000mAh power bank can recharge a typical smartphone several times over, which should comfortably see a couple of people through from Friday to Sunday.

Portable power stations are where camping starts turning into glamping. The PPT Powerpack Lite packs 88Wh of storage — far beyond a normal power bank — with USB-C, twin USB-A ports, 12V DC outputs, a wireless charging pad and even a built-in 230V UK socket via its 80W inverter. That means laptops, camera batteries, air pump, fairy lights — the lot. It also has an LED light panel and torch built in, which is exactly the kind of double-duty design you want when every item has to earn its place in the boot.

If you're off-grid for more than a weekend — or you just like the smug feeling of running on sunshine — folding solar panels are a brilliant addition.

The Maplin PPT Portable Solar Charging Kit pairs the Powerpack Lite with a 21W folding solar panel, so you can drain it by night and refill it by day. The panel itself is made from tough, lightweight monocrystalline material that folds flat into a bag, and it's efficient enough (up to 25%) to make meaningful progress even in less-than-Mediterranean British sunshine.

A phone torch will get you through one trip to the festival loo block. It will not get you through a week.

Maplin's portable lighting range covers the essentials: proper handheld torches and lanterns to hang in the tent or set on the camping table. The Maplin 600-lumen rechargeable LED torch is a standout — compact, metal-bodied, USB-rechargeable and with four lighting modes, so you can go from "finding the tent zip" to "signalling aircraft" as required.

And don't forget spares: stock up on AA and AAA batteries (or better, rechargeables plus a charger you can run off your power station) before you leave. Batteries at a festival cost roughly the same as a small car.

The IONOS Almere Emergency Wind Up Radio might be the single best pound-for-pound bit of festival kit going. It's an AM/FM radio, a 3-LED torch and a USB power bank in one, and it charges three ways — solar, USB, or good old-fashioned cranking. When everything else is flat, this thing still works. It's the centrepiece of the Maplin Emergency Tech Essentials Kit, which bundles it with batteries and a rechargeable torch — a genuinely sensible grab-bag to keep in the car for any outdoor trip.

A few final additions that separate the seasoned festival camper from the soggy amateur:

• Mobile hotspots — festival WiFi is a myth and rural signal is patchy. A dedicated 4G hotspot keeps the whole group online from one device.
• Bluetooth trackers — pop one in your bag or clip one to your tent. After dark, ten thousand tents look identical.
• Extension leads — if you've bagged an electric hook-up pitch, a proper extension reel turns one socket into a functioning campsite.
• Travel adapters — heading to a European festival? Sort your adapter before you're paying airport prices.

Festival and camping tech isn't about hauling your entire house into a field — it's about a few smart, rugged, multi-purpose pieces: a big power bank or power station, a folding solar panel to keep it topped up, proper lighting, and a wind-up radio as your fail-safe. Get those right and you can spend the weekend enjoying the music, the marshmallows and the mud — instead of queuing for a charging locker.

Everything above is available at Maplin, with free UK delivery on orders over £35 — so you can get sorted well before the festival tents go up.