New Quechua "Fresh & Black" Tents

[squirrelarmy]

52 minutes ago, dulcificum said:

I'll be taking one of these tents for several festivals in warmer climates (think SE Asia, Mexico, Portugal) in the summer where there is little shade available and temperatures are regularly 35C or greater.

Does anyone have any experience whether it actually works in conditions slightly warmer than a typical British summer?

Took mine to Sziget last year. Temperatures in the high 30s and I could sleep in till lunchtime. Still worth getting a shady spot if possible though. 

[Brave Sir Robin]

Took mine to a proper scorchio Bestival and it was great. I've never heard of anything affordable that does the job better.

[Chrisp1986]

_{Talking about tents is pretty positive......}

[dulcificum]

14 hours ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

Took mine to a proper scorchio Bestival and it was great. I've never heard of anything affordable that does the job better.

With respect a scorchio Bestival is nothing like a 7+ day festival where night temps are high 20s and day temps hit 40C with no shade.

[hfuhruhurr]

48 minutes ago, dulcificum said:

night temps are high 20s and day temps hit 40C with no shade.

crikey, the music had better be unbelievable and the beer cold.

[Brave Sir Robin]

1 hour ago, dulcificum said:

With respect a scorchio Bestival is nothing like a 7+ day festival where night temps are high 20s and day temps hit 40C with no shade.

Well excuse me for trying to be helpful. With respect, you said 35C and this was definitely well into the 30s, a hunt the shade affair.

Why don't you focus on finding people who go to these specific '7+ days of 40C heat' bizarro endurance festivals, rather than asking on a board for a festival with a rather different weather profile. You mention Portugal, I would suggest the Benicassim board, but then, that's only 3 days with an average max temp of a measly 30C so no good for you. 

 

[squirrelarmy]

1 hour ago, dulcificum said:

With respect a scorchio Bestival is nothing like a 7+ day festival where night temps are high 20s and day temps hit 40C with no shade.

Not the best picture example but there were more Fresh and Black tents than any other make at Sziget which does run for 7 days and has the extreme temperatures you describe. I didn’t take many other pictures of camping areas while I was there but you can go online and in any image of tents it will show a large proportion of them being white F&B tents.

There isn’t a better make of tent for hot weather. If you’re worried that you can’t handle those temperatures there’s always the airbnb option and stay offsite for most of these European festivals. Doing that though increases the cost and you don’t get the full festival experience.

 

[stuie]

3 hours ago, dulcificum said:

With respect a scorchio Bestival is nothing like a 7+ day festival where night temps are high 20s and day temps hit 40C with no shade.

I like a sunny festival but fuck that.

[dulcificum]

6 hours ago, squirrelarmy said:

Not the best picture example but there were more Fresh and Black tents than any other make at Sziget which does run for 7 days and has the extreme temperatures you describe. I didn’t take many other pictures of camping areas while I was there but you can go online and in any image of tents it will show a large proportion of them being white F&B tents.

There isn’t a better make of tent for hot weather. If you’re worried that you can’t handle those temperatures there’s always the airbnb option and stay offsite for most of these European festivals. Doing that though increases the cost and you don’t get the full festival experience.

 

Thanks. Airbnb isn't an option for lots of these but it's not an option I'd ever take anyway.

The reason I wasn't too concerned with the Sziget example is because I know it has much more shade available which makes a huge difference. I know plenty of other festivals in Hungary where that's not the case and you don't really see many of the F&Bs there.

As to why I asked here. I asked in general but was directed to this thread as the most in-depth discussion of these tents on these boards. And while it hasn't exactly been the case here, I know lots of Glasto goers have a more varied festival profile others who only have heard of the the commercial euro big hitter fests so I hoped I'd get some relevant feedback.

My main concern is that I suspect the airflow issue is the big one especially when trying to get a power nap during the daytime. I'm just trying to find out whether the reflective outer and blackout inner with zero airflow is better than my usual option which is a blackout tarp with 4 open walls which keeps me pretty cool when there's just a light breeze or if I've just come back from swimming.

Oh and btw, luckily most of these festivals have gorgeous lakes or rivers so there's no issue staying cool and the best music is at night anyway so it's definitely worth the hot weather but thanks for the concern

[Fish Bulb]

Ok I've searched around and this seems like the most relevant place to ask this question:

I'm borrowing one of the inflatable ones of these for Green Man next week, and I was wondering if anyone here who has an inflatable one uses any kind of electric pump to inflate it, or do you have to go hand pump and muscle power as it's so big?

Got a weekend left to shop so tell me what to go buy please! Ta

[philipsteak]

29 minutes ago, Fish Bulb said:

Ok I've searched around and this seems like the most relevant place to ask this question:

I'm borrowing one of the inflatable ones of these for Green Man next week, and I was wondering if anyone here who has an inflatable one uses any kind of electric pump to inflate it, or do you have to go hand pump and muscle power as it's so big?

Got a weekend left to shop so tell me what to go buy please! Ta

I helped someone put a pretty big one up at Wilderness. Was really surprised at how little effort it took. Just a few hand pumps and it was completely rigid (Finbar in 5,4,3...)

[stuartbert two hats]

I'm going to be sleeping in a normal tent tonight (Glastonbury Bell) at Worthy Pastures. First time since 2014 - not looking forward to waking up at five and not being able to get back to sleep...

[Quark]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I'm going to be sleeping in a normal tent tonight (Glastonbury Bell) at Worthy Pastures. First time since 2014 - not looking forward to waking up at five and not being able to get back to sleep...

I saw this thread on the front page and immediately wondered how long it would be before our resident Quechua sales rep turned up 😄

[Fish Bulb]

17 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

I helped someone put a pretty big one up at Wilderness. Was really surprised at how little effort it took. Just a few hand pumps and it was completely rigid (Finbar in 5,4,3...)

😳

Ok great ta, I'll buy a hand pump then and have a practice of my technique this weekend. Merci.

[topmarksbri]

9 minutes ago, Fish Bulb said:

😳

Ok great ta, I'll buy a hand pump then and have a practice of my technique this weekend. Merci.

You need to find something which can still pump in air even at relative high pressure so small hand held electric ones don't really do it. It's a faff using the big ones for sure but I haven't seen a way round it yet...

[Quark]

2 minutes ago, topmarksbri said:

You need to find something which can still pump in air even at relative high pressure so small hand held electric ones don't really do it. It's a faff using the big ones for sure but I haven't seen a way round it yet...

We've got a wide bore hand pump for our inflatable kayak.  Had a quick check for similar online and Decathlon have these that are specifically recommended for Quechua inflatables

 

[philipsteak]

6 minutes ago, Quark said:

We've got a wide bore hand pump for our inflatable kayak.  Had a quick check for similar online and Decathlon have these that are specifically recommended for Quechua inflatables

 

Yep, that was very similar (possibly exact model) to the one the person I was helping used

[Fish Bulb]

24 minutes ago, Quark said:

We've got a wide bore hand pump for our inflatable kayak.  Had a quick check for similar online and Decathlon have these that are specifically recommended for Quechua inflatables

 

I love this place

[gooner1990]

I bought one of these in 2019...sadly after I had already been at Glastonbury that year, but in time for Truck and BoomTown - defiantly made a big difference and got 2-3 extra hours sleep in the morning at the latter two festivals than I did at Glastonbury.

Only used it once since (last weekend) due to the pandemic but will be taking it to Beautiful Days festival next weekend where hopefully it will be a great help to all the hot dry weather we will have. 😄

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by gooner1990

[stuartbert two hats]

I thought they had foot pumps built into them anyway?

[Simsy]

I'll be using mine for the first time at end of the road. What are they like when it's not hot & sunny? Don't have to worry about 5am sun in September, so am I just going to freeze my tits off? 

[incident]

5 minutes ago, Simsy said:

I'll be using mine for the first time at end of the road. What are they like when it's not hot & sunny? Don't have to worry about 5am sun in September, so am I just going to freeze my tits off? 

Overnight it shouldn't be noticeably different, temperature wise, than any other tent would be. The main advantage is not being heated up by the sun but aside from that should broadly mirror the ambient temperature outside - maybe a fraction warmer due to your body heat.

[Crazyfool01]

Yep you need those pumps I think … attachment seems specific … here’s the nozzle on it 

[topmarksbri]

1 hour ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I thought they had foot pumps built into them anyway?

Unfortunately not - tbh the pump is an ongoing issue for me. I've got the one Quark mentioned above but it's kind of long to carry around but I haven't seen anything smaller which will go up enough PSI. 

[Chawk]

3 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I'm going to be sleeping in a normal tent tonight (Glastonbury Bell) at Worthy Pastures. First time since 2014 - not looking forward to waking up at five and not being able to get back to sleep...

just pitch your Fresh & Black inside the bell tent and sleep in that 😄