Best Festival Ear Plugs

As a huge fan of live music, I have been to hundreds of music festivals and live concerts over the years. I am over 50 years of age now, and the music volume has really taken a toll on my hearing.

I have terrible tinnitus; I am always turning the volume up on things, and cannot hear conversations in loud rooms.

It does not have to be that way, and if I had protected my hearing when I was younger, as I do now, then I would probably not be experiencing these problems. My hearing is hopefully not going to get worse now that I wear earplugs to music festivals and concerts.

Festival ear plugs are relatively inexpensive, and they should last you many years.

festival goer

As you are reading this article, I can assume that you are an avid music festival goer, and the chief appeal of these musical events is listening to great live sounds, usually so loudly, that you can feel the bass reverberating inside your chest! It is a great feeling to be socializing with your friends, having a beer or whatever, and being immersed in that loud music!

But loud noises have some downsides, and the main one of these is that it damages your hearing.

Normal conversation is usually about 40-50 decibels (dB) in volume. When the sound reaches 85dB in your work, then your employer should provide you with some form of ear protection. When you are at a live music festival, the sound is ordinarily 100-110dB, and can go as high as 130dB if you are right in front of the speakers.

At 100dB, it is recommended that you are exposed to the sound for only 15 minutes without ear protection. At 110dB, the recommended maximum exposure is under 2 minutes. So you can see that getting the best festival earplugs is a must.

festivals or concert

I am sure that we have all been to festivals, or concert where the music has been too loud and left with our hearing affected. Muffled hearing, or Ringing in the ears, is the most common side effects. This usually subsides after a few hours or in the worse cases, a day, then we forget about it.

The ringing is tinnitus, and believe me, if you keep exposing your ears to loud noises without protection. Eventually the ringing is going to stay with you forever. I have had ringing in my ears 24 hours a day for years now!

Will Wearing Ear Plugs At A Festival Ruin The Music?

Nobody is going to go to a festival to see their favorite band, if they have to wear earplugs that muffle the sound so that it does not sound great. But you need to buy the right sort of ear plugs. The most common types of ear protection are the foam plugs, moldable ear plugs, and earmuffs.

These are the types that you have probably worn before at some stage. As you perhaps realize from using them, they are a terrible choice for a music festival. They are great for reducing the sound, but their entire purpose is for them to block out as much of the music as possible.

They may be an excellent choice if you are working at the festival, and are not too bothered about hearing the music, maybe as a security guard or something similar.

This type of plug may also be the right choice if you are on a tight budget and want to give your ears a rest from time to time when you are at a festival.

Music Festivals and protecting your Hearing

But if you want to protect your ears, look for earplugs that are a little better than the cheap ones! We've compiled some of the best bets available for you to take with you this summer.

This article is going to be about festival earplugs. It's written from the perspective of someone attending a festival in order to give them advice on what they should wear so that they can hear their favorite artists without getting tinnitus or having their hearing damaged by loud music at concerts or festivals. It goes into detail about why you should wear earplugs and which kind might work best for your individual needs.

• The best earplugs for festivals are mass-market earplugs that come in packs of 12. The reason they are the best is because they're cheap and you have plenty of them , so if one falls out or breaks it's no big deal . They will last you throughout the festival regardless of how many times you take them out and put them back in.
  
  
• The only problem you will face with these earplugs is if they get damaged in transport , or at least that's what happened to myself when I was going to Glastonbury (2012). I had a pair of disposable earplugs, safe ones from Boots, which came with a case. They were crushed and I had to tape them together to use them for Glastonbury. So it's probably a good idea to buy two pairs to avoid this happening!
  
  
• The brand names you should look out for are usually the ones that are the cheapest and most readily available. Also, they will be the most durable earplugs. Some of these companies might include Boots, Hear Plugs, Ohropax (Germany), Etymotic Research (USA), ER20/30.
  
  
• These kinds of earplugs are especially good for festivals because they block out a lot more sound than any other kind of disposable earplug. They definitely work.
  
  
• What I do is to buy packs of 12. I keep 6 in my pockets and then at night, I stick the rest to the wall above my bed using Blu-Tack or something similar. That way, when I wake up in the morning they're ready to use without me having to search for them in my pockets or put them on a nightstand.
  
  
• If you want to go a step further, you can look at reusable earplugs. These work well if you want to have even more protection, but they're not recommended for festivals. They don't stay in your ears as well and you need to keep putting them back in. Reusable earplugs can be quite expensive and over the course of a festival, they'll end up being more expensive than disposable ones.
  
  
• The key thing to remember about earplugs is that they need to be kept in a cool, dry place if you want them to work properly. Keeping them in your trouser pocket or something like that isn't going to be enough.
  
  
• You also need to have the right kind of earplugs for the job too. For festivals, they need to block out a lot of sound and they can't be easily pushed back into your ears. So even though it's possible, most of the time you're just going to put the other pair on and off throughout a concert or festival weekend.
  
  
• Earplugs are fantastic if you want to protect your hearing and don't want tinnitus later in life. They will also protect you from the worry of having to have your ears checked by an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist at a festival.
  
  
• Lastly, be sure to go to the doctor if you think you have tinnitus, but it's probably not tinnitus because earplugs will definitely help that a lot. If you have problems with your ears, go and see an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist) and get it sorted out.

Conclusion

I have used these earplugs at a few festivals, like Glastonbury, and they definitely work very well. If you want to protect your ears at a festival and don't want to get tinnitus, make sure you use earplugs.

They will protect you from the high volume of sound and you'll be able to hear the music as it was intended to be heard without damaging your hearing. But do take them out throughout the day and at night to let your ears rest.

Especially if you go to festivals regularly, it makes sense to invest in something a bit better than those cheap ones you find at drug stores. I hope this article was helpful in deciding which festival earplugs are best for you!

Please Note: Just because an ear defender is marked, for example, "Gunshot" - it will still cover other things, like "explosions"

Conclusion – Best Earplugs For Music Festivals

There are no downsides to having earplugs when you go to a music festival. Do not be young a naive, yes you have excellent hearing now, but look around at people in their fifties and sixties, and see how many of them have hearing problems.

Get some good ear plugs now, they may save your hearing in later life, and for such a small investment, it has got to be worth it!