This article comes, as many great things do, from Reddit. It’s a single section taken from a larger post, but is profound enough to explicitly repeat here.
Thank you Mushy for your wisdom.
Many folks outside the scene, and sadly, some within, have the impression that a festival is just a rave on a farm or in the woods. It is. But it's far more than that, too. It's a spiritual collective of like-minded beings gathering to exchange music, art, inspiration, techniques for healthy living and sustainability--it's an exchanging of ideas and culture. I once heard someone refer to festival culture as a renaissance, and I think the term fits perfectly.
For you are not merely here to co-create a good time, but also to connect in a way hardly possible in the 'real' world. It is the total lack of judgment, the genuine smiling and subtlety of holistic exchanges, that defines festival culture.
A word that gets thrown around a lot is "participation." Everyone here wants you to be involved, whatever that means to you in the present moment. If there's a single piece of advice I'd offer a new festival-goer, it's to be interactive with whoever's around you--even if it's just by smiling at them.
It's crucial to prepare for festival season not only in terms of finances and gear, but also physically and mentally. Exercise. Pop in some headphones and dance in your yard like a fool; it's a chance to bolster your stamina and practice your dance moves.
'Out there' we spend far too much time absorbed in our own 'private' thoughts, looking down at a screen or the ground, instead of at the people directly in front of us.
Festivals are an opportunity to break from that melancholy, to experiment with looking up and connecting with our surroundings in an environment which actively encourages us to do so.
That said, there's a responsible, proven method to delve into that experiment. Plenty of folks achieve it by taking MDMA, but it needs to be deeper and more holistic than that. Psychedelics are merely a 'backdoor' to insight. They should really only be used in conjunction with proven methods--not as a substitute for them. I'm referring once more to meditation and yoga, to healthy eating and sleeping habits. This isn't a guide on healthy living, so I won't explain how to practice those things, but I'll offer tips on keeping your headspace -and thus the entire vibe of the festival- clear.
Get yourself a daypack. I use the foldable backpack I mentioned earlier. Bring some healthy snacks into the venue, plus a personal vessel for drinking water. If you wish, you can even pack warm clothes for nightfall. Then you won't have to return to camp till you're ready to sleep. Carry anything you may need during the day.
Before you ingest any drugs, find a calming space to meditate, if you're not already super-relaxed. If you don't do that, at least make it a point to attend one of the multitudinous, wholesome workshops offered by the festival, whether it's based around yoga, permaculture, social justice, theoretical science, movement--whatever floats your fancy! One of my favorite icebreakers is contact improv.
I strongly urge you to stretch for a solid hour before you dance your pants off all night. Your body will thank you, and you may even find, due to yoga encouraging you to bring healing awareness into routinely ignored regions of body, that you're capable of dancing in ways you never thought before!
The best way to spend your daylight is exploring the nooks and crannies of the festival. There's bound to be awesome vendors, installations and artsy chill zones to discover. Sit down for a spell. Chat with whomever you find. Seriously. This is when the real magic happens. I've been thousands of miles from home and met people from my tiny hometown. I've been struggling with mental hurdles and wound up conversing with exactly the person I needed to meet. I've been a guide, a student, a stranger, a healer... your sense of self-worth changes as you decide what to teach the people around you. And make no mistake--you are always teaching them something, whether or not you mean to.
Dancing like a maniac may be the most obvious goal when attending a festival, but it is the magic that occurs in connecting with other people that will nourish your mind. Serendipity will throw some wild and wonderful experiences at you, if you're ready for it.
And when the evening comes, you'll be in a positive, attuned state of mind. You will already feel connected with your surroundings. And it is only from this spiritual framework of clarity and positivity that the decision to engage mindfully with psychedelics should occur, if at all.
When it comes to new substances, I've always decided my willingness to try them based on the behavior of people I've seen using said substances. What kind of reactions have I seen this substance elicit? What kind of stories -good and bad- have I heard? Is this a substance that is going to broaden my horizons in a healthy way? Will it foster growth, or make me disconnect from others?
If you've asked yourself those questions honestly and found your inner guide has raised no protests, then by all means, indulge. A good rule of thumb when using any substance is to take half of a single dosage. You can always take more; you can't take less.
I've used a fair amount of hallucinogens in my life, and to this day, my preferred dosage for three of the most widespread substances are half an 8th of mushrooms, half a dose of LSD and just a sprinkle of MDMA--an amount that I'm certain will not challenge me for control of myself.