Summer is nearly here and any seasoned festival veteran usually has a hammock in their camping arsenal. What we are looking for in a hammock at Music Festival Wizard are high-quality travel hammocks for campsite chilling that don’t put too much of a dent on our budget. Today, we are looking at the Bear Butt Double Hammock, roomy enough to comfortably hold two adults (or three kids), but small enough that it won’t take up too much room in your car or backpack. Along with the hammock, we are reviewing a pair of Kodiak Straps which promise to make set-up a snap without adding too much bulk to the overall package.
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I’ve been using the Double Hammock for the past two weeks in the forests and fields of my hometown in Vermont. It has been a bit of a wet season, but I did manage to find a few spots of sunshine. Here I am gazing across the Mad River Valley to Camel’s Hump (the peak itself is artfully hidden behind that tiny sapling).
Bear Butt Double Hammock By The Numbers
Capacity: 500 lbs / 227 kg
Material: 75-denier Nylon Taffeta
Packed Dimensions: 7 in x 4 in x 4 in / 18 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm
Dimensions: 10 ft x 6 ft / 3 m x 1.48 m
Weight: 1.5 lbs / 680 g
Ease of Set-Up
No issues here. With the Kodiak Straps, I had the hammock set up in under two minutes. Each strap is 10 feet long with 20 attachment points. If you are thinking about sticking with the rope that’s included with the Double Hammock, I can’t stress enough how much faster the Kodiak Straps are for getting up and hammocking. Once you have the straps around trees, hanging the hammock itself is even easier. With the multiple attachment points, I was able to quickly adjust my hammock height without the hassle of rewrapping around the tree.
The attached stuff sack also doubles as a hanging pouch that holds all your small stuff like keys and change and whatever else falls out of your pockets when you are swinging on a hammock.
Comfort and Chilling
The Double Hammock uses a 75D Nylon Taffeta fabric that felt both strong and breathable, but also quite soft. At a lengthy 10 feet long and 6 feet wide, I found plenty of sprawling room during afternoon naps. The most enjoyable part of the Double for me was using the hammock as a swinging chair – it’s just about the most perfect way to enjoy a beer on a hot day. I did find as a solo person that the Double can “banana” up, meaning that if you stuff all your limbs inside the top of the hammock can come over like a cocoon, which I did use on occasion to hide from swarms of gnats. Next item on my to-do list is to start reviewing bug nets.
In case you are wondering what I’m deeply pondering in the above photo…
Weight and Size
The Double Hammock is easily compressed into its own attached stuff sack with a separate bag for the Kodiak Straps. This may be a bit large and bulky for a backpacking trip, but for festivals, this will take up hardly any room in your car. For day-tripping around the festival grounds or long-term trips around Europe, I would go for the smaller and lighter Bear Butt Ultralight Hammock which also boasts the same high-quality in a significantly smaller package.
Value
With a price around $50, the Double is an easy recommendation for a festival hammock. If you add the straps (and you should), this will bump the price up a bit (about $35), but keep in mind that the straps are high quality and can be used with multiple hammocks. Bear Butt frequently has deals on their official website, so it’s really worth checking out to save even more money.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to comfort and value, the Bear Butt Double Hammock paired with the Kodiak Straps checks all of our boxes when it comes to choosing a festival hammock. Cosmetically, festies might find options for colors and patterns to be a bit limited as I know a lot of you tend to go for the brighter and crazier designs. Stay tuned for an end of summer recap where I will revisit all the hammocks I tested to see how they held up over a few months of use in Vermont and Montana.
