The re-enactment weekend kit list: what actually goes in the car

Every re-enactor has stood in a field at seven in the morning realising they left something essential at home. This is the list that stops that happening. Your group's standards override everything here — check with them first.

The impression

• Full uniform or civilian clothing to your group's standard
• Headgear — the most commonly forgotten item in the hobby
• Footwear, broken in well before the event
• Webbing, belts and pouches
• Personal equipment appropriate to your impression
• Spare socks. Then more spare socks.

Sleeping

• Tent or allocated space confirmed with your group beforehand
• Groundsheet — the difference between damp and soaked
• Bedroll or blankets
• Modern sleeping bag concealed inside them, if permitted
• Roll mat. Your back at forty will thank you.

Eating and drinking

• Mess tin, mug and eating irons
• Water container, filled before you arrive
• Food, if catering is not arranged
• Something hot for the morning, however you can manage it

The unglamorous essentials

These are the things that separate a good weekend from a grim one, and almost none of them are period.

• Wet weather kit — both period and modern, kept out of sight
• Blister plasters — the most valuable object in any camp by Sunday morning
• Painkillers and any personal medication
• Torch — for finding the latrines at three in the morning
• Sun cream — an entire day standing in a field catches people out every summer
• Cash — traders and beer tents are not always reliably contactless
• Power bank, kept discreetly in a haversack
• Bin bags — for wet kit on the way home

Paperwork

• Membership and insurance documents
• Event tickets or pre-booking confirmation
• Any certification your group or the event requires
• Emergency contact details somewhere findable

Packing the car

Load in reverse order of need. The tent comes out first, so it goes in last. Your Sunday clothes can live at the bottom.

Keep one bag — wet weather gear, water, blister plasters, torch — accessible without unpacking everything. You will need it before you have finished pitching, and you will need it in the dark.

The one nobody writes down

A second pair of boots. Wet boots do not dry overnight in a canvas tent, and there is nothing worse than putting damp leather back on at dawn for a second day.