Festival season is upon us, and while we’re pretty sure you’ve got the deets on the best hairstyles and outfits, there is one element you may be forgetting: the perfect bag!

In our opinion, backpacks are the go-to carryall for festivals. They have room for snacks, drinks, lip gloss, sunscreen, and all sorts of other goodies, while offering you a hands-free experience. And that’s precisely why we’ve rounded up five of our favorites especially for you.

Whether they’re good for your health, previously loved, or made from upcycled materials, each of these has a positive, eco-friendly feature that we’re pretty sure the earth-lover in you will appreciate. From a hippy boho bag to a ’90s Lisa Frank that’ll take you straight back to your childhood, we’ve got something for everyone.

1. Mulberry Cross-Body Bag

While the materials may not be directly sustainable, the ergonomic features and body-contoured design of this backpack promote a healthy neck and back, which is perfect for long days spent at your favorite festivals. The AmeriBag brand has created a lightweight, functional bag that features an inward-facing zipper closure, meaning you can wear it confidently without worry of theft. It comes in a variety of colors and materials and will go with everything in your closet. Priced at $65.

2. Vintage Kilim Rucksack

This vintage Ecuadorian rucksack is perfect for bohemian fashionistas that live for layering crochet tops, patchwork pieces, and long, flowy garments. The vibrancy is stunning and a testament to the quality of this previously-loved bag. Perfect for stashing your goodies, like snacks, water, and sunscreen, this backpack will add a much needed pop of color to any festival outfit. Use the color palette as the basis for choosing (or making) your outfit—purple, teal, and green are great for standing out from the crowd. Priced at $81.

3. Aries Vegan Leather Bag

Known for creating chic, vegan-friendly bags, the Matt & Nat brand is great for festival goers. Sturdy, well-made, and conscientious, the Aries backpack in Glass is a testament to minimalist beauty. This pastel piece is soft and pretty, making it ideal for pairing with lacy dresses, kimono style cover-ups, and all of your favorite prints. Plus, you can keep this bag around long after festival season is over since it’s perfect for work or play. Priced at $145.

4. Native Upcycled Backpack

Mafia Bags takes pride in the commitment to producing upcycled, eco-friendly backpacks. This awesomely iridescent satchel is made from a combination of windsurf and kitesurf sails. Ultralight, water resistant, and complete with a bottle holder, you can cruise around festivals with ease while also staying hydrated. The neutral palette will go with a variety of looks, including rompers, patchwork pieces, and two-piece outfits. Priced at $224.

5. Vintage Lisa Frank Bag

Relive your childhood while looking totally raver-chic in this ’90s, candy-colored vintage backpack from Lisa Frank. Ideal for an EDM festival, pair this piece with other vibrant hues, floral headbands, round sunglasses, and plenty of glow sticks. Denim shorts, a basic halter, sneakers, and a simple choker is all you need to do this bag justice and let the whimsical old-school design shine—just don’t forget your scrunchie. Priced at $60.

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

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Self-reliance. Life-changing art and music. Community. Welcome to the modern world of festival culture. But is it all it’s cracked up to be?   

Some would say it was a different world before 1969’s seminal 3-day Woodstock festival. And then, there’s everything that came after. The momentous event left an indelible mark on our culture. For those who were there, countless stories have no doubt been told, over and over. For those who didn’t go, but wanted to, life has surely never been the same.

Fast-forward more than 40 years, and we’re now inundated with a moneymaking festival industry (something Woodstock failed to do). From coast to coast, north to south, the counterculture gatherings grow every year, and continue to aim to outdo previous incarnations.

The first time you experience the ultimate modern festival, Burning Man, is hopefully one of profound “wow.” If not for the drive (unless you’re one of the few who fly in to the desert located hours from virtually anything else) and the magnificent environment, there are many reasons to look out at the spectacle in sheer awe.

For the uninitiated, it’s the ultimate collective human experience: Radical self-expression is the name of the game where some 50,000 people pour into an otherwise deserted dried up lake bed for a week and transform it into something hard to describe beyond “magical.” No money changes hands there (besides your ticket and the occasional cup of coffee or ice). Everyone is invited to participate, to share, to express. Garish costumes, dancing like no one’s watching, the mood enhancers—be they caffeine, alcohol, cannabis or other street drugs—they’re most often used responsibly to enhance the experience (and in some cases, enable attendees to endure the long nights of music and dancing without falling asleep). There are the unabashed conversations and make-out sessions with strangers–if you so desire. And many do. In short, it’s a freaking incredible place to freak out without freaking people out who are afraid of freaks. (Like Hunter S. Thompson said: “The Edge… there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”)

Burning Man’s influence has spread rapidly over the last two and half decades—taking Woodstock’s humble ambition to a 3D blockbuster degree with artistic communities across the globe essentially revolving around the yearly pilgrimage to the desert. It’s said to have helped evolve electronic dance music to its modern frenzied peak, as well as influenced art and film, technology and everything in-between. Noteworthy non-profit efforts such as Burners Without Borders have emerged, and perhaps Burning Man’s most cherished byproduct: the profoundly personal liberation attendees feel during, and most often, long after, the experience.

It has, like Woodstock, prompted its fair share of copycat festivals, which have now become nearly as essential as Burning Man itself: Lightning in a Bottle, Envision, Lucidity, Harmony and so on. Even the strict music or yoga festivals (Coachella, SXSW, Lollapalooza, Wanderlust, Bhakti Fest) have taken on an air of “the weirder the better.” And if you’re not there, well, you surely missed out on something.

Interspersed throughout most of the events are talks and lectures, community building workshops, therapeutic healing sessions and more. This programming attracts some of the top names in counterculture movements: experts on alternative economics, permaculture, sustainability, technology, sexuality, psychedelic medicines, aliens—you name it. Combine that with all night dancing, lots of new faces, a little dehydration, and whatever else you may be altering your consciousness with, and you’ve got yourself a serious experiential encounter.

There is no question about the huge value our own personal transformation has. Self-discovery is key to finding our place in the world and how we can participate (and, hopefully, make it better). The intensity of these festival settings can make every experience more profoundly memorable; so, what you learn in a hot, dusty tent about organic farming on your 3^rd day at Burning Man, may stick with you longer than, say, reading about it here on this website. But are you going to act on it once you get home? Will you eat better? Plant a garden? Write Abbott Laboratories about their use of GMOs in Similac infant formula?

What’s become increasingly more evident is the addictive nature of these events. It strikes many adventurous attendees with a what’s-around-the-next-corner type of affliction; to not go to as many of these events as possible becomes uncomfortable, unfair. Connection with the “community” is often cited as the most common reason for going; and a noble one at that. Certainly, ideas, projects and collaborations emerge out of the days or weeks spent together with fellow unshowered seekers.

But are festivals really the answer to our problems?

Regardless of what we may take away from a journey as profound as a festival, they’re still privileged events only few people in the world can afford to attend. While we party in the desert and dance the night away in costume, be certain that some people in the nearest town still don’t have enough to eat. Honeybees are still dying from pesticide exposure. Corruption is still plaguing our politics and corporate citizens. That’s not to put a damper on our need to dance—perhaps our politicians could use an MDMA-infused partially-nude night out in the desert themselves—but it is the reality we’re not directly addressing while we’re lost in liberating ourselves.

And what’s become more of a reality in light of the booming festival culture is the number of people who seem more concerned with the next tented outing rather than what can be done in the “real world” to bring that “community vibe” to a more applicable realization…in the bigger community at large.

Like Woodstock proved, there’s something to be said of common values—particularly when they include kindness, sharing, taking care of each other, self-expression, and a collective appreciation of art and music—good things can indeed happen. Something about these festivals resonate on the ever-important I-am-more-than-my-life-at-home level. After all, the personal awakening is a reflection of what’s happening collectively. And just like the world needs both the profound experience of repeated awakenings, it also needs practical boots on the ground tactics for dealing with immediate and less sexy issues than what to wear to the Temple Burn.

Beyond Burning Man’s relevant ‘radical self expression’ moniker, there is also the ‘radical self-reliance’ declaration festivalgoers must adhere to. Aside from the toilets, everything you need to survive for a week in a 100-degree F desert is your responsibility to bring in—and out—of the festival. It’s pretty darn good advice for living in a world where reliance on others often means supporting corporate agendas and crooked politics. And since we’re talking new paradigm or waste of time, it seems that the only thing we really need to remember is that it is indeed a waste of time if we don’t take these new paradigm experiences and infuse them into every aspect of our lives, wherever we are, and whenever we get there.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Christopher.Michel

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When love for live music crosses the ticket line to addiction.

Skipped out on rent to blow extra cash at Coachella? Scheduled a pregnancy around a Phish concert? How about letting mom’s birthday cake candles melt just to spend an extra hour with Dave?

Find me a harmless hobby or a gentle habit and I’ll show you someone who’s developed a full-blown addiction. We humans are good at getting hooked, but why? Addiction has its roots in a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This chemical plays an integral role in the pleasure we derive from sex, food and yes, rock ‘n roll. The first time you hear a song you like, one or more elements in the music causes an increase in the level of dopamine in your brain. This might lead you to download the tune and listen to it over and over again for days (admit it, you’ve done this). But after hearing it many times, the pleasure subsides because you no longer have the cues to make the dopamine to kick in as powerfully. In other words, it gets old.

This is why live music takes on greater importance for music lovers. Even the most manufactured pop stars perform their songs a little bit differently with each gig, and musicians who are known for improvisation manage to keep their fans not only interested but coming to shows repeatedly.

The ‘high’ occurs not only when you feel, taste or hear something that you thoroughly enjoy but also with its anticipation. With bands like Phish, Dave Matthews and of course, the Dead, the set list always changes and predicting which songs are going to be performed is part of the ride. As one song ends the thrilling deduction process begins again for the next song. If you’re right and it’s a song that you really love, dopamine, that wonder drug, kicks right back in again.

Concerts have a communal spirit that can help ‘feed’ the addiction. I remember watching the Dead and feeling a sense of connection with the strangers around me as we danced to “Sugar Magnolia.” (And it’s not just a substance-induced euphoria.)

Live music can provide a transcendental and very personal experience. Phish follower, Jon Bates, says, “It’s like a religion for me. It really gets deep inside you.”

Dopamine’s role in our affinity for music can border on the extreme. The general medical consensus is that as long as it does not negatively impact your life, being obsessed with seeing live music is a harmless habit. Besides, is planning a pregnancy around a tour all that different from trying to conceive in February so you end up with a little Scorpio?

Image: Carlo Cravero

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