Antoinette’s party bag

This is not just about what to bring onto the dancefloor.

I went to a music festival (mind you, it was three weeks ago). Usually, after arriving home from these sorts of events, I have a tendency to let every object I acquired ruminate at the bottom of my bag. Hosting kick-ons. Like the festival never ended.

And so, for three weeks, I’ve carried this bag straight from the dance floor into civilisation. The other day, when I looked down and asked myself, ‘Why do I have a blue bangle and an underwater film camera in here?’, I knew it was time.

Yet part of me didn’t want to permanently erase these ‘things’ from existence. So what better way to honour them than to share them with the internet… right?

This is not just about what to bring onto the dancefloor, but rather, the stuff—or, for lack of a better word, the ‘shit’—that you take from it. The wrappers and lollipop sticks. The free can of beer gifted from a stranger. The unexplainable things that find their way into your bag after a night out. Finding you.

So, before I clean out my bag—this is my festival bag.

The bag in question is my trusty nylon Prada crossbody. It has served me well—dancing by my side (or across my body) at five festivals now. Someone once asked, “Why do you have a laptop bag with you?” and that kind of stuck. It has four compartments, which seems great, until you’re trying to find a 5cm packet of gum in pitch-black darkness. You will most likely see me trying to find something in this bag, forgetting to zip up the bag, or alternating shoulders to bear the weight of this bag! Each festival I curse it, yet it continues to come with me every time. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Inside I counted:

• Six hair ties

• Two sunglasses

• One inhaler

• A bangle

• A single obliterated lollipop stick

• One Chupa Chup

• A portable charger that actually didn’t work

• A useless charging cord (again, because the portable charger didn’t work!)

• An underwater film camera, a digital camera and my phone

• Hydralyte

• One neck warmer

• My Fluff Lip Oil

• One can lid…

… and just a whole bunch of pure rubbish.

If you litter your rubbish at a festival, you lose 10 aura points. I don’t care if it’s a can, or a gum wrapper. It goes in the bin. Or, in my case, my bag.

My most used item was gum and/or my sunglasses. My least used item was my phone, purely because it died the first day. I wasn’t too bothered. My newest item? Hydralyte. Ashamedly I went through a whole 10-pack in three days, which is teetering on overkill. But, it is powdered gold and fixes anything.

I don’t carry many beauty products in my bag—if anything, I don’t really bring any with me at all. I wish I could pretend to be that girl who gets ‘ready’ with her friends, sitting around an unstable fold-out trestle table, applying foundation with a dusty beauty blender. But I’m just not, and honestly, I’m not that mad about it either. One lip product is enough. I usually bring my one Fluff Lip Oil in Original Clear.

I somehow carried a blue bangle around for the whole festival— I decided the first night it was annoying on my wrist, and it has lived in my bag ever since. Many festivals ago, I would try decluttering my bag every day. This was wishful thinking and didn’t last very long. You’d be surprised how quickly your bag accumulates random objects. Now, at each festival, I am reminded by my partner just how unfunctional my bag is. I like to think of it as cosy. I haven’t lost anything yet, so I must be doing something right?