Resting easy: Therm-a-Rest Trekker Lounge €49.90Available from the Great Outdoors, Chatham Street, Dublin 2 and other outdoor equipment retailers around the country
Therm-a-Rest are the people who make those thin inflatable mattresses that put a layer of air between you and the hard ground. Indispensible whether you're sleeping in a tent up Lugnaquilla, or enduring an enforced stop beside Gate C3 at Dublin airport.
Overnight the mattress destroyed the market for those awful foam sleeping rolls that used to protrude awkwardly from every serious traveller's backpack.
The Trekker Lounge is a nifty lightweight sleeve that turns a Therm-a-Rest mattress into a chair.
It'll give you the most comfortable seat in the house if you're planning an extended stay at the beach or beside the campfire, but it's an ideal accessory for this summer's outdoor festivals (as well as a raincoat, of course).
Standing up for hours on end at Electric Picnic or one of the Malahide Castle gigs will leave you too exhausted to enjoy the best acts - so this year, lounge back and relax during the warm-up.
Then you can save your back for something loud like Radiohead.
E-mail: aharvey@irish-times.ie