Festival season is well and truly underway, with Glastonbury wrapping up its 53rd year of the festival this weekend, and many more events including Forwards Festival, Creamfields, and All Points East all set to take place this summer. But after the festival is over, and you're heading home in your (potentially) muddy wellyboots, you're likely looking to preserve the memories, beyond the cute Polaroids and TikToks. And one very easy way to keep those festival memories alive? Keeping your festival wristband. But how do you keep it one piece? We've got all the hacks to know.
A festival wristband is an iconic part of the festival uniform, and though it may be covered in booze, mud and the odd ketchup stain, you still want to hold on to it, not only for the memories, but in the case of Glastonbury, to prove that you went there.
Of course you can always just cut your wristband in half to take if off your arm, but then you don't get to preserve it in one piece, so how do you do it? Well this is our essential step by step guide.
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How to remove a festival wristband without cutting it
The carrier bag method
- Get a plastic shopping bag.
- Put each handle of the shopping bag under the wristband and pull it through.
- Then use the shopping bag handles to tug the wristband off your arm.
Tips: this works best on looser wristbands, if it's on super tightly please don't pull and tug your wristband.
The shoe lace method
- Get a shoe lace - ideally not a muddy one - or a thick piece of string.
- Wrap the end of it round your finger and then spiral it across your hand.
- Pull the end of the shoelace under the wristband.
- Then wind the shoelace through the wristband until it reaches the end of your finger tips.
- Pull the wristband out.
The twist method
The plastic tag on the wristband has teeth which stop it from becoming loose, so for this method it's about being able to pull the wristband through those teeth, here's how.
- Grab the loose ends of the wrist band.
- Start twisting them together as tightly as you can.
- As the twisting reaches the plastic tag, you should be able to then pull through the tag off the wristband.
The straw method
- Cut up a small piece of plastic straw, about an inch long.
- Then cut this piece of straw length ways.
- Take this piece of straw and fan it out before poking it through the plastic tag in the direction of the loose pieces.
- Use the straw to then pull through the wristband material through the plastic tag, releasing the fabric from the tag.
And now keep the wristband for years to come and reflect on all those festival memories.
Lydia Venn is Cosmopolitan UK’s Senior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer. She covers everything from TV and film, to the latest celebrity news. She also writes across our work/life section regularly creating quizzes, covering exciting new food releases and sharing the latest interior must-haves. In her role she’s interviewed everyone from Margot Robbie to Niall Horan, and her work has appeared on an episode of The Kardashians. After completing a degree in English at the University of Exeter, Lydia moved into fashion journalism, writing for the Daily Express, before working as Features Editor at The Tab, where she spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and Talk Radio. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gilmore Girls and 00s teen movies, and in her free time can be found with a margarita in hand watching the Real Housewives on repeat. Find her on LinkedIn.
