Summer Music Festival Fashion Guide

By Chris Frey
June 16, 2011

Bonnaroo Music Festival

Bonnaroo Music Festival - Day 1 (Photo by Jeff Gentner/Getty Images)

A total immersion concert experience, the Bonnaroo music festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last week, came complete with on-site camping and multiple stages showcasing a diverse array of musical acts that included Florence Welch, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Eminem, indie darlings Phoenix and the Strokes and country legend Loretta Lynn. Over 80,000 fans spread across 700 acres of farmland for one of summer's first major music festivals.

left: Bonnaroo 2010 - Day 3 (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Contributor)

Whether nestled a new-agey area of South West England, where the Glastonbury Festival takes place later this month (the legendary music festival served as inspiration for Bonnaroo) or the urban center of Chicago’s Grant Park, where Lollapalooza takes over in August, outdoor music festivals are notorious for unpredictable weather, making wardrobe choices a complete conundrum.

You want to look (and feel) as cool as possible, but given the inevitable heat, constant chance of rain, and hours on your feet, you need shoes you can walk in all day and fabrics that breathe. On a less practical note, you may also want to push your own personal fashion boundaries with more color, pattern and skin-baring silhouettes than you might be accustomed to (with bikinis all around you, you’ll feel comparatively modest.) Know, though, that whatever you wear upon entrance to a summer music festival may not exit in the same condition following a day of dust and dirt, possible rainfall and the inevitable puddle of beer you couldn’t quite avoid en route to find some much-needed shade.

Kate Moss

Kate Moss at Glastonbury in 2008, (photo by Danny Martindale/WireImage), 2010 (photo by Claire Greenway/Getty Images), 2008 (photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

For fashion inspiration, we turned to some Bonnaroo performers who encapsulated festival-goer fashion, as well as the queen of festival fashion, Kate Moss, who has been setting the bar high since 2007 when she was first photographed sludging through muddy Glastonbury terrain with then boyfriend, rocker Pete Doherty, wearing a Brigitte-Bardot-inspired mini-dress with a wide, low slung belt and Wellies. Like Grace Potter, Karen Elson, Nicole Atkins and Florence Welch, who all preformed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, Moss favors a '70s vibe that includes wide-brim hats, slinky t-shirts, lingerie-inspired dresses, fringe, cut-offs, crochet and tribal prints. She also piles on the fashion accessories, lending cache to even the simplest apparel.

Bonnaroo Music Festival

Grace Potter of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (photo by Skip Bolen/WireImage) and Nicole Atkins of Nicole Atkins & The Black Sea (photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage) at Bonnaroo

Bonnaroo Music Festival

Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine (photo by Skip Bolen/Contributor) and Karen Elson (photo by FilmMagic/FilmMagic) at Bonnaroo

As for your summer music festival fashion absolute-must-haves: comfy sandals, moccasins or wellington boots that can withstand potential rains; a good bag to haul all of your concert needs (cross-body or lightweight); sunglasses that are chic but give you the protection you need; and, of course, jewelry, a hat, belt or other piece that anchors it all together.