Going to Glastonbury this weekend? Make sure to pack your most waterproof gear as it looks like it's going to be another muddy one .
Here's our selection of the best weatherproof, rugged gadgets to keep you dry at the 35th instalment of the world famous Glastonbury Festival , or any other of the hundreds of festivals around the country this summer.
Camera
No festival is complete without a load of drunken snaps of your favourite band in action, so make sure to bring a waterproof one. Our suggestion is the Olympus mju: 770SW . It's a rugged 7-megapixel camera that can handle water, falls and crushes, should you happen to put it underneath your sleeping bag.
Waterproof to 10 metres, the Olympus mju: 770SW takes decent photos and is small enough to fit in your pocket. It is drop-proof to falls of 1.5 metres, and crushproof to 100kg. It's priced around £235.
Camcorder
If taking pictures of your festival experience isn't enough for you, then you might want to take a camcorder to really all the weird and wonderful people and happenings you'll come across during the four days.
Our pick is the Panasonic SDR-S10EB-K , a compact, flash-based camcorder that records footage straight onto a SD memory card. Being weather-proof, it can handle being rained upon, and it's also dust-proof (handy if the rain should stop and the festival area becoming dry and dusty instead). The camera is also rugged enough to handle drops and costs around £280.
Another option is the waterproof Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 camcorder. It captures digital video and 6-megapixel photos on land as well as underwater. It can record full motion video 1.5 metes underwater for up to 30 minutes.
Thanks to its ergonomic design, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 fits right into the palm of your hand while you control the various function with your thumb.
It records Mpeg4 video in 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames-per-second, and it can snap 6-megapixel digital still images; both file types are stored on a standard SD or SDHC memory card. It has a 2.5-inch LCD screen that flips out and can rotate up to 285 degrees. It has 5x optical zoom and costs around £250.
Mobile phone
You're guaranteed to lose your friends at least once. If you want to find them again, a mobile phone would come in handy. A waterproof one is even better if you get stuck on your own in the rain.
Fujitsu recently launched the world's thinnest waterproof mobile phone (and possibly also the first), the Fujitsu F703i . It measures just 17.9mm thick and can handle being submerged at a depth of one metre for 30 mins. It features a 2.2-inch screen, a 1.3-megapixel camera and a webcam. It also has a MicroSD slot for extra memory.
DAB radio
If you somehow get tired of seeing the real thing live, there's always the option of staying at the campsite tuning into a few good tunes on this battery-powered DAB radio. The Pure Digital Oasis is solid enough to bring to festivals without worrying too much that it'll pack in halfway through. It boasts 15 hours of battery life and offers good sound quality. The Pure Digital Oasis is priced at £100.
Digital music player, headphones
You probably won't use an MP3 player during the actual festival - unless you get stuck with particularly noisy neighbours - but on the way home, there's nothing better than to plug your earphones in and relax, thinking back of the sleep-deprived, music-filled, fun-packed past few days.
You might want to leave your 80GB Apple iPod at home and bring something less valuable, but yet well-performing. The Sony NW-E013 is a quality-sounding, 1GB MP3 player offering 30 hours of battery life. It costs just £59 which could prove a worthy investment when you're stuck on that bus back to civilisation.
