summer

The Best Festival Tents

If you've been to festivals before, you're more than likely to have suffered from the ‘wisdom' of a friend who claimed that you should save money on the tent for beer. After said beers, you return to your campsite, with the tent hanging off a tree and your belongings strewn across the grounds.

On the other hand, you could invest in a sturdy piece of gear that could last you several festivals - like the following:

• The Constellation DLX Cygnus is a perfect choice for you and your buddies. Set-up time clocks in at around 10 minutes and features a LED lighting system inside.
• The Vango AirBeam Genesis 300 is definitely a pricy investment, but a worthwhile one if you value your time. No poles, just inflatable tubes and it just takes 4 minutes to set up.
• The Antic White is the cheapest and fastest option in terms of setting up. It's customisable for your own designs if you want to make it stand out from the crowd, too.

Read on to find out how those who opt not to bother with a tent survive - you might find you're glad you don't share their apparent reckless attitude; not least when you consider how utterly unreliable the British weather can be. Staring up at the stars as you drift off is a nice idea, but what if you can't see for your eyes being filled up with rain?

The British summer has finally decided to join the party, after much consternation and anxiety from sun-worshippers across the country. The change in weather, of course, also calls for a change in clothing, which means you're going to have to start thinking about making some serious fashion decisions in the coming months.

Before you charge into stores to buy denim hot pants or those breezy summer dresses, we urge you to have a browse through some of these fashion tips for students this year - it'll definitely make a difference to both your comfort and your look!

Metallic Colours

Metallic colours are making a comeback this season. Of course, if you're choosing outfits for evening events, you'll perhaps want to avoid gold and silver and go for the more pastel-metallic colours and materials instead.

Going metallic is a style commitment - those brave enough will dive in at the deep end to achieve this shiny, retro-futuristic look. But if you don't want to go for full-on sixties sci-fi gal, it's still possible to work the trend to your advantage subtly, with a sheer gauze top or maybe a skirt.

One-year Master's students in Britain are all too familiar with the situation described so brilliantly by my good friend and fellow Master's student:

INSTALLING SUMMER.....

███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE.

Install delayed....please wait.

Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found. Season "Summer" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is unavailable in England.

Perhaps my friend was referring to the lack of sun and warmth that characterizes this time of the year in England yet is unthinkable for the season in his native Brazil. But perhaps he was referring to the lack of summer that comes from having to write a thesis during vacation. You have all heard that British people are obsessed with time, and one-year Master's programs in England are no exception. Forget about that September-May nonsense; here they last exactly one year. While we attend classes for the first nine months, the last three months after final examinations are destined to the dissertation writing process.

Thousands of revellers gathered at Stonehenge this morning to celebrate the longest day of the year. As part of an ancient tradition, 18,000 druids, hippies, pagans and tourists all travelled to the historic site to witness the sunrise at 4.43am that marked the official start of summer in the UK.

Called the summer solstice, the 21st June has been a sacred highlight in the Pagan calendar for thousands of years,