Foods like vanilla pastries, coleslaw, crepes, uncooked tofu and unpasteurized milk were blamed for spreading some really bad stomach-churning buggies, including E. coli, Salmonella, norovirus and shigella, as well as hepatitis A. Definitely not the kind of wild party festival attendees were planning on.

A second study, released by England's Health Protection Agency, sheds light on how bad hygiene practices by mobile caterers can lead to disaster. Over a seven-month period, English public health inspectors gathered more than 1,600 samples of food and other items from caterers at big outdoor events. They found "unsatisfactory" levels of bacteria on 8 percent of food samples – "higher than would be expected if good hygiene procedures were being followed," study co-author Caroline Willis tells The Salt via email.

The finding was interesting," writes Willis, a microbiologist with the agency, "but not surprising, as similar results have been observed in previous studies." Cramped conditions and inadequate access to water are both common risk factors among mobile food vendors, she says.

What was surprising, she says, was the contamination risk posed by a source that hasn't gotten much attention in the past: the security wristbands that both food vendors and attendees are often required to wear at these events. Fully 20 percent of wristbands sampled were covered with gut-busting bacteria like E. coli.

It makes sense these studies came out of Europe. As the Eurosurveillance report notes, 13 out of 20 of the world's biggest music festivals last year took place on the continent. But the lessons also apply in the U.S.

And if you're heading out to Coachella this weekend, take heart: Tyler Skrove, who oversees food inspections at Coachella for Riverside County, Calif., tells The Salt that inspectors have never had a report of foodborne illness at the festival in the three years he's been on the job.

But food isn't the only source of bad tummy bugs.

At the 1997 Glastonbury festival, which took place on a farm, E.coli sickened seven people. After much rain, soaked festivalgoers decided to embrace the all-encompassing mud by dunking themselves in it, Woodstock-style. Unfortunately, cattle had grazed there two days earlier, and left some contaminated presents behind.

Dear reader, I was one of these mud-jumping fools. I somehow avoided catching any nasties — though I did get to catch some awesome sets from Radiohead, Beck and Tori Amos.

Looks like these two attendees at the 2009 Music Openair Festival St. Gallen in Switzerland couldn't resist jumping in the mud, either. Photo: Ennio Leanza/AP

Copyright 2013 NPR.

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Bands Aren't The Only Things That Incubate At Music Festivals