Here’s A Few Festival Lessons To Remember For The Rest Of The Summer

Don't book an apartment too far away from the festival. It always takes longer than Google maps will tell you because if you're in a group there'll be that one bloody person slowing you down. You won't want to trudge for 30 minutes there at the end of night, in the dark, when you're drunk. Or midday when its sweltering heat and you're hungover.

Read the small print, and don't be fooled by apartment website photographs. We were promised a pool and a 10 person house (which we planned on squeezing 12 people into) which turned out to be a 6 person house. Cosy doesn’t begin to describe it.

If you want to camp, the tents at Soundwave are amazing. Some of them fit 6 people in and have heart shaped windows in bright circus tent colours. Plus, they’re not even that pricey.

Don't ignore the views. Croatia is in one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see but you’ll be too busy drinking, dancing or eating watermelon to notice.

Book a boat party in advance. They're the highlight of the festival and sell out really quickly. If you can’t get a ticket hang around and you might get be able to squeeze on.

Bottles of Prosecco actually end up being quite a cheap way to drink if you share a bottle with friends.

Stealing abandoned lilos might seem like a good idea at the time but someone will probably catch you out, and handing back a giant pink inflatable raft is fairly embarrassing.

Share food. Festival food is nice, but pretty pricey. If you're trying to save money take a short walk in to town and split the costs.

Saying that, there's a cleverly parked burger van at the exit to the festival which is great at the end of the night – especially thanks to the tacky europop blasting from its speakers.

If you're feeling rough in the morning, there's an amazing smoothie you can buy on the beach called a Hangover Heaven. It’s a little more expensive than a beer but totally worth it.

You can buy watermelon really cheaply by the slice.

But don't abuse your watermelon privilege. Don't pour vodka in it and leave it in the sun or smash it in to pieces. Ants like watermelon too and if you're camping it's pretty unpleasant.

Stay hydrated. Easier said than done when the festival doesn’t serve free water at the bars. Eventually those in charge figured out people kept asking for ice and waiting for it to melt into water instead, so they stopped allowing that too. Bring your own water bottle and fill it up at the camping taps.

Dancing on the stage by the water is just as fun in the day as in the evening. In the day it isn't rammed so you have loads of space to dance in the sun and the DJs play great but pretty chilled music. At night the atmosphere is amazing.

Don't overdress. You'll end up carrying all of your clothes around when you realize how hot Croatia is.

Underdress! Don't take too many clothes and get a nice bikini because it's pretty much all you'll be wearing.

Wear suncream or you'll look like that guy.

Beware of the sea urchins. They’re vicious and you don't want one in your foot. Bring appropriate water footwear.

Don't be stupid about taking your own drink into the festival. The bouncers are strict and they'll confiscate it. If you take it in, hide it well, or bring a decoy bottle of cheap beer and wave it around openly as you walk through the gate; if they kick off about that they might not notice the vodka hiding in your bumbag.

Don't be too upset if the main band (Fat Freddy's Drop) who you'd been waiting the whole festival to see is cancelled due to the craziest thunderstorm you've ever seen. Riot Jazz (a brass band with a great frontman who play covers of songs like Sexual Healing) might save the night with an impromptu set in the festival restaurant.

Do dance all night. The music stops at 2am but there's a night called Barbarella's which, at a price, you can take a coach to with other Soundwave goers and carry on partying til 6 am.