From the pros at Dustproof Supply: We've slept in vans and parking lots since the late '80s, Dead tour included. An RV and a car are both "camping from a vehicle." They are not the same camp. One is a small room you still have to power, shade, and ventilate. The other is a seat that becomes a bed, with almost no air and no kitchen. The shared rule is the one people skip when they're cold or trying to charge a phone: combustion stays outside, and a running engine is not a heater.
Lot manners, clear bags, and a run of venue shows are already covered in the tour lot camping guide. This page is the vehicle itself: where the exhaust is, where the shade ties, how you sleep, and how you haul gear when the car can't follow you to the site.
Check the festival PDF before you roll. Some events sell RV passes with no hookups. Some ban generators. Some don't allow overnight sleeping in a car at all. If the page says day parking only, this guide doesn't overrule it.
The short version
- Never run a generator, charcoal grill, camp stove, or fuel heater inside an RV, a tent, or a vehicle. CDC and CPSC are both plain about carbon monoxide.
- Don't idle the car for heat, air conditioning, or charging while anyone sleeps in it. Charge from a power bank. Ventilate if you're sleeping in the car, and follow the lot's overnight rules.
- Shade on pavement means weights, or shade tied off the vehicle, not stakes driven into asphalt.
- Keep a clean bin and a dirty bag. The car is a small room. Dust and wet clothes will fill it.
- Park once, if the fest says vehicles stay put. Do your store run before that gate closes.
Carbon monoxide is the non-negotiable part
Carbon monoxide is a gas you can't smell. CDC's camping-relevant guidance is direct. Don't run a generator inside a home, garage, or camper, or within 20 feet of windows, doors, and vents. Don't use a charcoal grill, hibachi, lantern, or portable camping stove inside a home, tent, or camper. Don't leave a vehicle running in an enclosed or partly enclosed space. A separate CDC page tells you to operate a generator outdoors, more than 20 feet from windows, doors, and vents, and to use a battery-powered carbon monoxide alarm.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says people die from carbon monoxide when portable camping heaters, lanterns, or stoves are used inside tents, campers, and vehicles. Their instruction: don't use fuel-burning portable heaters or lanterns while sleeping in those spaces. Symptoms they list include headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness, and confusion. If someone in the vehicle or RV feels flu-like and the stove or a generator has been running nearby, get them into fresh air and get medical help. Don't "sleep it off" in the same space.
Festival translations, still inside those rules:
- The RV stove is for cooking with a window or vent plan the manufacturer describes, not for heating the bunk overnight.
- A generator, if the fest allows one at all, sits outdoors, away from windows and neighboring tents, not under the awning against the bedroom slide. Quiet hours and "nuisance" rules are the fest's on top of the CO rules.
- A car with the engine on and the windows cracked is not a safe bedroom. Cracking a window does not make an idling car a heater.
- If you open a tailgate on an SUV, CDC notes that exhaust can be pulled into the cabin when the tailgate is the only opening. Don't sit in that pocket with the motor running.
Read the pages, not just this summary: CDC carbon monoxide basics, CDC on generators and camp stoves, and CPSC on camping equipment.
RV camping when the hookup isn't really a hookup
A lot of festival "RV" passes are a parking pad. No power, no water, sometimes no dump. Plan as if the batteries and the tank you arrived with are what you have, then be grateful if the pad offers more. Ask the fest, in their words, whether generators, awnings, and extra vehicles are allowed. Don't arrive with a toad car you can't credential.
If you're flying in from abroad for Burning Man and picking up the RV when you land, sort out the licence, deposit, and event-disclosure rules first with this guide to Burning Man RV rental for international visitors.
Power that isn't the engine
Phones, fans, and a lantern should run off a 20,000mAh power bank you charged on the drive, not off an idling alternator at 2 a.m. The power basics guide covers watt-hours and why banks hate a hot dashboard. Keep the bank in the shade of the cab, not on the dash.
If you do run a generator where it's legal, distance and a CO alarm matter more than the brand. Point the exhaust away from your windows and the neighbor's tent. Shut it down for quiet hours even if you still want the fan.
Shade and the awning
An RV awning is shade until the wind arrives, and then it is a lever on the side of the vehicle. Stake or weight the arms the way the awning maker says, and roll it up when the gusts start. The same judgment as a pop-up applies. Our canopy wind guide is the detailed version for a freestanding roof beside the RV. On pavement, weights. On dirt, screw-in stakes. Don't tie a shade wing to a plastic trim piece and call it engineered.
Ratchet straps are for real anchor points. Painter's tape is for labels on bins and a note on the door, not for holding a canopy to a painted panel.
Water, trash, and the hose you don't have
Fill a collapsible jug when you pass the potable spigot. Festival hose water and dump-station wash-down water are not the same thing. If the park says the dump wash-down isn't drinking water, believe the park. Keep drinking water in its own container, in the shade.
We keep a few contractor bags loose in the car every trip. An RV pad with no service still produces trash, and "I'll find a dumpster later" is how bags live under the step. Gray water and sewage follow the fest and the park, not a blog. Don't dump on the ground.
Sleeping in a car
A car is a last-resort or a lot-camping bedroom, not a tent you forgot to buy. The limits are space, condensation, and air.
- Confirm overnight parking is allowed. A day lot that empties at midnight is not a campground because you brought a pillow.
- Engine off. If you need heat, use insulation you brought, not combustion. We've handed mylar blankets to shivering neighbors at 4 a.m. more than once. They're loud and they're a backup, not a sleeping bag. A real layer from the fall camping list is the better plan when nights drop.
- Crack a window on a side that isn't getting a face full of another car's exhaust, for condensation and air. That cracked window is not permission to idle.
- A compressible pillow, Loop Quiet earplugs or foam earplugs, and a blackout sleep mask matter more in a car than in a dark tent. Lot lights and a sunrise through the windshield end the night early. We've been sleeping in vehicles and tents long enough to know the sun is usually what wakes you, not the last song.
- Recline with a clear path to the door. Don't pile the cook kit on your only way out.
Living out of the vehicle without losing it
The car fills up with one kind of object: the thing you meant to put back. Give every category a home.
- A sealed 62-quart bin for clean clothes and bedding. It can live in the footwell or the RV bunk and still close.
- An over-door organizer on the RV door, or hung where the maker allows, for sunscreen, earplugs, keys, and the headlamp. Don't mount hardware the RV owner didn't ask for if the rig isn't yours.
- A headlamp for the walk from a dark row to the toilets. The interior dome light will kill your night vision and wake whoever is still asleep.
- Body wipes and a solar shower bag if the fest has no bathhouse and the rules allow you to hang one. Warm the bag in the sun, not on a hot exhaust.
- A wagon for the hike from distant parking to a tent site when the car has to stay in a lot. Water and the sleep bin ride first.
Every camp we've been in ends up at a folding table, even beside a van. The RV dinette is a fine table until three people need to cook while someone is sleeping two feet away. A table outside, in the shade, keeps the propane and the food smells out of the bunk. A festival kitchen list is the rest of that setup. Cook outside. The CO section above is why.
Arrival order for a vehicle camp
- Credential the vehicle the way the fest asked, before you're in a line inventing a pass.
- Park facing your exit if the lot allows it. You will leave tired.
- Shade and awning next, then weights or stakes, then the table.
- Water filled. Power bank in the shade. CO alarm batteries checked if you have a generator or an RV stove.
- Sleep kit staged so the mask and earplugs are in the door pocket, not under the cooler.
- One daylight walk to medical, water, and the toilets.
Which festivals sell RV camping
What we found on the official pages on 2026-10-18. Passes and rules change every year, so check the fest's own page before you book a rig.
- Electric Forest: GA RV, GA Powered RV and Good Life RV passes, about 20 by 50 foot sites. Built-in RV generators are OK; external gas generators are not.
- Bonnaroo: an RV pass per rig, 20 by 50 foot spaces, and generators under 4kW allowed.
- Bass Canyon: RVs in every camping area, plus The Grove RV Park with 30 and 50 amp hookups. Generators are OK outside 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. quiet hours.
- Lost Lands: RV sites with and without hookups. They sell out fast, and only onboard generators are allowed.
- Lightning in a Bottle: General RV, RV with Power and RV group sites. The campground rules list generators of any kind as not allowed.
- Camp EDC: drive-in RV camping for Class A, B and C rigs from 19 to 45 feet, with a power add-on and no refueling.
- Hulaween: a Dry RV Pass in the primitive campgrounds, upgraded hookup sites, and generators only in the Fish Bowl or 80 Acres.
- Shambhala: camperized vehicle passes, but no generators at all, built-in ones included.
- Not Coachella: no RVs, motorhomes or trailers in its campgrounds.
Renting? Start with our guide to renting an RV for a music festival, then the fest guides: EDC Las Vegas, Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, Lost Lands, Hulaween, Lightning in a Bottle and Shambhala RV camping.
FAQ
Can I sleep in my car at a festival? Only if that lot allows overnight parking. If it does, sleep with the engine off, a window cracked for air, and a real plan for cold. Idling for heat is a carbon monoxide risk, not a hack.
How far should a generator be from the RV? CDC says outdoors, more than 20 feet from windows, doors, and vents, with a battery-powered CO alarm. The festival may ban generators entirely or limit hours. Their rule is extra, not instead.
Is an RV awning enough shade? It's shade until the wind picks up. Anchor it the way the maker specifies and roll it up in gusts. A freestanding canopy beside the RV needs the same anchors as any other pop-up.
What should I charge phones with? A power bank you topped up while driving, kept out of the sun. Don't idle the vehicle as a charger while people are in or against it.
Do I still need a tent? If you're in an RV, often no, unless the fest counts people and the rig is full. If you're in a car, a tent is usually the better bedroom when the site allows one. The car is the backup and the lockbox.
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Dustproof Supply: independent festival camping notes. Not affiliated with any festival or campground. Carbon monoxide guidance here is from CDC and CPSC. Your vehicle manual and the event's camping rules come first where they're stricter.
Want friends to chip in? Turn this list into a shareable gift list with the Fest Registry.
Shop the kit: our Festival RV Kit pulls this list into one page, with an Upgrade tier too. See all Festival Kits.