I offer this advice as a cautionary tale - when thinking of heading out for an all-day outdoor folk music festival with a toddler, take the weather reports seriously.  But if, as I did, you say to yourself "what's a little rain?" and head out to Croton-on-Hudson for the Great Hudson River Revival with clouds looming ominously overhead, here are a few things I wish I'd done:

1 - Bring something waterproof to sit on.  Because if all you have with you is a picnic blanket, you won't be able to sit down while you're listening to Pete Seeger in the rain, and your toddler will go completely stir-crazy and start banging his head into your neck from his relatively comfortable (and dry) position in the Ergo backpack you wisely decided to wear.

2 - Pack the spare set of clothing in a ziplock bag.  Because if you just leave them loose in the bottom of your canvas tote bag, they will get soaked along with everything else and there will have been no point in bringing them along in the first place.

3 - Bring a towel.  See above re: keep it in something waterproof.

4 - Enjoy whatever sunshine you can.  The rain did let up for about 20 minutes while we were there, which DZ was able to spend showing off his new "squatting to pick things up" skill collecting leaves in the playground next to the food area while the grown-ups took turns getting lunch. 

5 - Don't pay $9 for a fairground gyro when you could have a fairground hot dog for $3.

6 - Know when to quit.  Sure, you paid for the tickets months in advance.  Yes, you've been looking forward to taking your firstborn child to his first music festival since before he was born.  But you know what?  There will be another one next year, and you're soaked to the bone and the rain isn't going to let up anytime soon.   At least you got to see Pete Seeger before it started really pouring, right?  Time to go home and get dry.