Beyond The Mat
The AcroYoga Festival Packing Guide: What to Bring, What to Leave Home
I have watched a lot of people arrive at acro festivals. You can spot the first-timers immediately, because they brought a suitcase. By day three it's living in a corner of the dorm, unopened, while they wear the same shorts for the fourth consecutive session.
I've done the overpacking version and the underpacking version. Turned up at one festival in Italy with three pairs of jeans and no sunscreen. Genuinely useful decision-making, that.
So here's what I actually bring now, after a lot of festivals across Bali, Europe, and everywhere in between — and, more usefully, what I've learned to leave home.
The stuff you'll use every single day
Two pairs of practice shorts or leggings, minimum. Whatever you think you need, you need one more. Everything you train in will be soaked by 11am and it will not dry overnight in a humid climate. Quick-dry synthetic over cotton, every time.
A long-sleeve layer. Sounds wrong for a summer festival. Isn't. Evening jams get cold, mountain sites get properly cold, and if you're flying you'll want your arms covered when someone's feet are on them for the fourth hour.
Sunscreen, and more than you think. You're outside, upside down, for six hours a day. I've watched extremely experienced acrobats end their festival on day two because their shoulders got destroyed. Reef-safe if there's any water nearby.
A proper water bottle. Not the flimsy one. A litre, minimum. Basing is dehydrating in a way that sneaks up on you, and the fastest way to have a bad session is to be slightly dehydrated and not realise.
Earplugs. Unglamorous, transformative. Festival sites are loud until 3am and you want to train at 9am. This is the single highest-value thing in my bag by weight.
The gear that earns its space
Here's my rule: if it doesn't get used most days, it doesn't come. That knocks out most of what people pack.
Back support, if you base. Obviously I'm biased, but this is the one piece of gear that changes your festival rather than just accessorising it. Festival floors are the worst surfaces you'll ever base on — packed dirt, gravel, wooden decking, a yoga mat over concrete — and you're basing far more hours per day than you would at home. Five days of that adds up fast.
This is the exact reason the Go is the model I travel with. It's the compact one, it folds, and it goes in a backpack. If you want the full comparison of support options — including the free ones — we cover that in what actually works under a base's back.
Grip, in some form. Sweaty hands plus hand-to-hand equals a bad time. Liquid chalk is the compact answer; a small towel works too and doubles for everything else.
Wrist support, if your wrists complain. Festival volume is much higher than your normal week. If your wrists are borderline at home, they'll be a problem by day three. Wrist wraps weigh nothing.
Something to protect it all. Gear at a festival lives on the ground, in the dust, in the back of a van. We built the Travel Bag for exactly this because I got tired of my AcroBack coming home the colour of the campsite.
What stays home
Handstand blocks and parallettes. I love them. I use them constantly — at home. At a festival you're training with people all day and you will not do solo conditioning. They're heavy, they're hard shapes to pack, and they'll come back untouched. Leave them.
Multiple outfits per day. You will wear practice clothes and one set of evening clothes. That's the whole rotation.
Your entire toiletry kit. Showers are shared and time-limited. Nobody is doing skincare.
Books. Every festival I've been to, someone brings three books and reads zero. There is no downtime. You will train, eat, jam, sleep, repeat.
A hard suitcase. Festival ground is grass, gravel, or mud. Wheels don't work. A duffel or backpack, always.
Flying with acro gear
A few things learned the hard way.
Foam support goes in carry-on. It's bulky but weighs almost nothing, which is exactly backwards from how airline limits work — use your carry-on for volume and your checked bag for weight. A folding wedge is a genuinely different experience from a rigid one here.
Nobody has ever questioned my gear at security. Foam, fabric, straps — all fine. Liquid chalk over 100ml goes in checked, same as any liquid.
Check the site conditions before you pack shoes. Mountain festivals in Italy need actual shoes. Beach festivals in Bali need none. This information is always on the event page and I have never once checked it in advance.
Bring cash. Rural festival sites and card readers have a difficult relationship.
A note on jam etiquette
Not packing, but it matters more than anything above.
Ask before you join a jam. Ask before you spot someone. Learn people's names and roles — knowing whether someone bases or flies, and roughly what level, saves everyone a lot of awkward negotiation. If you're new to the vocabulary, Acro Lingo 101 will get you through your first day.
And pace yourself. The most common festival injury isn't dramatic — it's someone doing four times their normal training volume on day one and being useless for the rest of the week. Day one is not the day to try your hardest trick.
The list, short version
- 2–3 sets of practice clothes, quick-dry
- One long-sleeve layer, one evening outfit
- Sunscreen, water bottle, earplugs
- Back support if you base — the compact model
- Chalk or a small towel
- Wrist wraps if you need them
- A bag that protects your gear from the site
- Cash, a power bank, and shoes appropriate to the terrain
- Duffel or backpack — never a hard suitcase
That's it. It fits in a carry-on and a daypack, and you'll use all of it.
Beyond The Mat supports festivals across Europe and Asia — Summer Dream in Tuscany, Antola in Liguria, EYA in Sardinia, the Dutch Acro Festival, the Mediterranean Acro Convention, and AcroSpirit here in Bali. If you see the gear on the field, come say hello.
Related guides: Basing with tight hamstrings · Preventing low-back strain · Gear that actually lasts