Festival camping has a few unwritten rules about money that aren't obvious until you've done it a few times. Some costs are clearly shared (the tent, the gas, the morning porridge); some are clearly individual (your bar rounds, your festival merch); but a meaningful chunk of festival spending sits in the middle ground where the answer is 'it depends what the group decided on day one.' Here's the etiquette that tends to keep groups intact through Sunday afternoon.
The clearly shared bits
Tent rental or pitch fee (split equally between everyone sleeping in it). Gas, mallet, tarp, gaffer tape, lights, communal speaker (split equally). Shared morning food - porridge, coffee, breakfast bacon (split equally if everyone's eating). Pre-festival Aldi run for the campsite (split equally; one person fronts it, logs as a group expense, EvenRound handles the rest).
The clearly individual bits
Your bar rounds (your problem unless the group agreed to a fund). Your individual food truck visits. Your festival merch, posters, branded hats. Your phone-charger queue. Your slot at the showers. Your sunglasses you forgot and had to buy from the merch tent at 4x markup. None of these need to enter the group's settle-up.
The 'depends what you agreed' bits
Beer rounds: most groups skip 'I'll get this one' rounds and run a shared pot (everyone puts £40-100 in, one person tracks it). Communal dinner: usually split equally even if some people had less. Taxi at the end: split between everyone who took it, not everyone in the camp. Festival ticket if someone dropped out and they can't refund: traditionally borne by the dropout, but groups sometimes choose to absorb. EvenRound's per-expense participants make any of these splits easy to model.
The 'don't bring it up at 2am' bits
Someone forgot a sleeping bag and you let them use your spare: it's a favour, not a chargeable item. Someone borrowed your phone charger: same. Someone drank one of your beers when you were at a set: brought up on the train home, not 2am at the campsite. Festival money etiquette is mostly about timing - bring up at the right moment, never at the wrong one.
The post-festival settle-up
Don't try to do this on the campsite. Sunday afternoon is for clearing the tent and getting on the coach, not for arguing about a £6 burger. EvenRound's settle-up runs the smart-settlement plan on the way home; everyone gets one number, pays it via their preferred method (Revolut, Wise, bank transfer), and the group is square. The point is to stop talking about money for the rest of the year.
The best festival groups have one conversation about money in the week before, one settle-up on the train home, and zero arguments in between. Set the shared/individual lines on day one, run a pot for the in-between stuff, log everything in EvenRound, settle on Sunday.
Common questions
Who pays for the tent at a festival?
Everyone sleeping in it, split equally. Whoever owns or buys the tent fronts the cost as a single EvenRound expense; the others split it as participants. If the tent is borrowed or already owned, there's nothing to split - it's a favour, not a chargeable item.
Should bar rounds be tracked in a group expense?
No, unless you've explicitly agreed to a shared pot. Bar rounds add noise to the settle-up and feel small to everyone involved. The cleanest pattern: leave bar rounds as personal spending, and run a £40-100 per-person communal pot for the genuinely shared drinks (the bottle of wine at the camp, the round when everyone's together).
What happens if someone drops out at the last minute?
Festival tickets are usually non-refundable, so the dropout traditionally bears the cost themselves. Some groups choose to absorb it as a goodwill gesture - which is generous, not obligatory. If you do split a forfeited ticket across the remaining group, log it explicitly so it's not a surprise later.
When should we settle the festival expenses?
On the train home, not at the campsite. Sunday afternoon is for packing and getting on the coach, not for arguing about a £6 burger. Whoever set up the EvenRound group runs the smart-settlement on the way home; everyone sees their one number and pays via Revolut, Wise, or bank transfer by Monday evening.