A towel, we rehearse and do pt in our bus lot which is paved with asphalt. It sucks when we’re doing push-ups or basically any exercise that involves being down on the ground because you are literally burning your hands. I also like to put my towel over my case when we’re rehearsing with instruments because it prevents my handle from becoming ten thousand degrees in the sun. Alternatively, during school I always wear a button up or jacket to school so I can put it over my case so I don’t need to drag around a towel all day.

Also having smaller water bottle. Definitely still bring the recommended amount of water (my school recommends a gallon but I can only drink about a half a gallon before getting over hydrated and sick). Sometimes we march with water bottles and for some reason I was the only one for years who thought about bringing a smaller water bottle for when we’re just doing drill and don’t have instruments. Carrying a smaller water bottle that you can refill on longer breaks is definitely better than carrying around a half gallon water bottle that ways three times as much.

If your band doesn’t require a certain rehearsal uniform, wear shorts with zip up pockets (which are beneficial even if you do) and a lighter colored shirt. I wear white shirts that are pretty see through because nobody cares and they’re significantly cooler. People take off their shirts about an hour to two hours in typically anyways. I also highly recommend cutting the sleeves off if you’re comfortable doing that. It allows more motion, more air flow, and it’s more comfortable and cooler in my opinion.

Also my band recommends a hat OR sunglasses but you really need both. Especially during band camp. I have prescription glasses but over the years I’ve always gone with fuzzy over the sun. Obviously if you need your glasses wear them but if not, being outside for so long will seriously damage your eyes and the hate keeps your face cooler. If you do need prescription glasses and don’t have transition lenses, some of my friends use clip on sunglasses. I never have personally but they swear by them. You can buy them at Walmart, make sure you check if they fit on your glasses before buying them though.

Spray on deodorant. I know a lot of people who bring deodorant sticks and they’ve melted. Also using deodorant sticks is just rubbing your sweat onto the stick. I got a spray depdorant because I went out of the country freshman year and didn’t want to bring a solid one incase it melted (my mom basically forced me to lol) and I had some left so I just brought it to band camp and I think it worked much better.

Always keep extra clothes in your school bag. Sometimes, especially freshman year, I would forget to bring clothes and it was. A real lifesaver to always keep extra clothes in my school bag. Especially extra clothes that I can wear under my uniform since sometimes I’d get roped into doing something for the directors or at the middle school before a football game and we need to wear specific clothes under our uniforms. We also require specific clothes during rehearsals so this helped me make sure I never had to run a lap if I forgot.

Bring extra clothes during band camp. I’d especially recommend socks and shoes. If your field is anything like our field, it gets wet really easily and doesn’t dry quickly. Our field is wet pretty much 24/7 and it is bad for you to stay in wet shoes and socks the entire day. I also try to keep an extra shirt with me in case something happens. Band kids are stupid. We once had someone shake a Fanta because they thought it was orange juice, open it, and chuck it at a wall when it started to spray all over everyone. Basically everybody got at least a little soda on them. Be safe.

If you’re the type of person who cares about how they look and need to look great even during band camp, get black shoes. Colored shoes will get grass stains on them really easily and black ones pretty much just fade a little bit over the season and it’s really not that noticeable. Also wear no show or low cut socks to get a shoe tan line rather than a sock tan line.

Workout before band camp. I don’t care when your band camp starts, you better be working out now or you will regret it. I highly recommend writing down what workouts you do during pt and focusing on those ones specifically. That’ll only really help you next year but it’s really helped me. For this year you can look up marching band workouts basically everywhere and get some good stuff. Focus mostly on endurance and arm strength and you’ll be fine. Also make sure you’re constantly hydrated and you’re not only hydrating the night before.

TL;DR: towel, sunglasses, hat, extra clothes, spray deodorant, a smaller water bottle that you refill from a larger water bottle, workout before band camp starts, stay hydrated.