Camping guide
about camping
Indoor camping is a cheap accommodation add-on for Insomnia weekend and BYOC ticket holders. Priced at about £10 per night, it is roughly 12 to 16 times cheaper than your average hotel room! Access to showers and toilets in the hall are included as standard.
Please note: camping is restricted to age 16+, with no exceptions.
Bean Dynamic is here to prepare you so that your camping experience is the best it can be.
Lights are turned down in camping between 21:00-09:00, please keep noise to a minimum during these hours, this means no shouting, loud airbed inflating, loud chatting in the hall. Despite this, you may want to bring eye covers and ear plugs if you are a light sleeper.
There are no self-catering or food storage facilities in camping so you will need to bring food that would survive in a pantry or buy from the eateries at the event. We recommend that you keep a full bottle of water in your tent, especially if you are drinking, in order to stay hydrated.
Your luggage should be kept inside your tent. There are no lockers or specific luggage storage facilities.
| Camping Open |
15:00 Thursday – lan plus, lan premium, and lan vip ticket holders 09:00 for lan/weekend ticket holders |
|
Camping Close |
16:00 Monday |
camp with bean dynamic
If you are attending with Bean Dynamic, you may be able to get £5 off your camping ticket by joining a camping guild! Contact a staff member to sign up.
Although the camping hall opens at 1 pm on Thursday, Bean Dynamic enters together at 3 pm and goes to our pre-reserved plot. If you are arriving at camping outside this time, then check the #insomnia-bean-announcements channel in our Discord for the details on our plot location.
Although our plot is pre-reserved you must still make yourself known to the camping check-in desk (just after security) and tell them that you are camping with Bean Dynamic.
Camping as a group means that you always know the people staying next to you and any conflicts can be easily resolved within the group. As an extra bonus, we make sure you don’t have to trek across the whole hall to get to the bogs or the showers by not having our plot miles away from them!
tickets
If you are attending with Bean Dynamic, you may be able to get £5 off your camping ticket by joining a camping guild! Contact a staff member to sign up.
Each ticket gives you a wristband that grants access to the camping hall and a 2.6×1.6m (or 4.15m²) plot.
You need a ticket per person, not per tent!
If you buy the ‘camping for 4’ option you do not need to camp with the other people you bought the ticket with, but you may combine several plots between any ticket holders if you wish to share a larger tent.
Camping Packing List
- A tent is not required but is highly recommended – see below for some cheap tents
- Air bed or roll mat – air bed is preferable
- Sleeping bag or warm duvet
- Pillow
- Eye patch and ear plugs are optional but advised for lighter sleepers
- There are no plugs in camping so you may want a portable charger (27000mAh will last the whole weekend as your only charging source, even with generous phone use)
- A torch or electric lantern can be useful when its dark at night in your tent
FAQ
What is an individual plot size?
Tickets are per person not per plot.
Plot sizes are 2.6×1.6m (or 4.16m2) you can merge plots with others or change the dimensions of the plot as long as it stays inside your allocated square footage.
How Do camping guilds work?
Camping guilds are a system we use in Bean Dynamic which matches people together in order to get £5 off camping tickets. There is no other change to your camping experience.
You do not need to camp next to or with other people in your camping guild. You may get assigned a guild based on the people you usually speak to, or, based on the date you are able to pay for your ticket.
If you have a camping guild you should hold off from buying your own camping ticket as you will need to purchase as a group of 4. If you wish to join a camping guild, please contact a staff member!
Can I tape or peg my tent to the ground?
Short answer: no
The floor is concrete so you would be hard-pressed to get a peg hammered into the ground.
If any NEC or event staff see a tent that is taped to the floor they will request that it be removed immediately as it could damage the paint on the floors.
You are permitted to weigh a tent down in lieu of pegs if you wish to carry large weights to Insomnia so that your tent will stay up.
Will there be showers in the camping hall?
There will be showers and toilets in the camping hall.
Are there any power sockets I can use?
As mentioned in the Facilities section of this guide: there are a limited number of power sockets on the outer walls of the hall. These can be used to pump up airbeds or dry hair, no devices can be left in them unattended. If you wish to have a power supply at your tent then bring a power bank with you.
Tents
Although a tent is not required I highly recommend you bring one, Bean keeps a list of cheap tents (shown below) that you can buy. All of these are self-supporting (do not need pegs to stay upright) as the floor is concrete. Taping tents up is also not allowed and any tents seen attached by tape will be told to remove the said tape. Most of these tents are very basic and should only really be used indoors, if you want to get a hard-wearing outdoor activities tent you should visit a proper outdoor store. The Go-Outdoors tents we suggest would be suitable for occasional outdoor use. You are allocated 2.6×1.6m (or 4.16m²) as a plot size, but you can use this area in any shape and merge plots with other ticket holders.
The general rule is that tents advertised for 2 people would be comfortable for 1 person, and tents for 4 people would be comfortable for 2 or at most 3 people with their luggage.
Tents Sufficient For the Camping Hall
2 Person Tents:
Go Outdoors
Decathlon
Amazon
4 Person Tents:
Go Outdoors
Decathlon
Amazon
You need something to sleep on! The floor in the NEC is concrete so you will need an air bed or a roll mat. You can inflate air beds using one of the few power sockets on the edge of the hall. An air bed will be your most comfortable option but they can be punctured and deflate, a foam roll mat only would not be especially comfortable. Quecha, Outwell, Regatta, and Berghaus are all good brands to buy from. They come in various thicknesses, depending on how much comfort you want or how much you can carry to the event! Even better, after 6 years of use, my Outwell one is still inflating, a worthy investment. A Final option is a camp bed, but you should only bring one if you're driving there and have checked it will fit in your tent.
Remember to bring some bedding or a sleeping bag to keep you warm through the night, including a pillow.
Facilities
Showers, toilets, power supplies and more
Camping has 2 portacabin showers (similar to those pictured on the right), each divided into 2 rooms containing a shared changing area and 3 private shower cubicles. These 2 rooms tend to be separated by gender (men and women). You will need your own towel and wash things. Top tip: dry your flannel and towel on the top of your tent between uses!
The toilets are in a separate area (built into the NEC). It is unlikely that toilets will contain plugs for straighteners or hairdryers etc. You would have to use the plugs on the edge of the hall for this reason, so there would be no mirrors near the plugs. You can only use these plugs for a short period and with supervision, you should only carry out noisy activities such as pumping up airbeds and drying hair from these plugs during daylight hours.
For similar reasons, we suggest you bring a portable charger for phones and similar devices as you will not have a power supply at your tent or be able to leave things plugged in at the wall.
There is a cafe in the camping hall serving breakfasts from 8:00-12:00 every day
