Essential Festival Season Gear & Accessories

Loop High Fidelity Earplugs make hearing protection functional and fashionable. Presuming you dig the look of a coupla donuts in your ears (no lobe stretching required!) The new twist on earplugs takes the standard Pac-Man-ghost-shaped canal insert, streamlines them into a more subtle dome shape, and then adds a ring to the end. When worn, the resultant Loop enables a 20dB noise reduction, a comfortable, firm fit in the ear, and simple removal. More importantly, Loop Earplugs look like a stylin' piece of ear jewelry. Or a least a lot better than neon wads of foam sticking out the sides of your head.

Yeah, I think you can consider a weekend of boozing, dancing, camping, and getting 3 hours total of sleep in 90+-degree heat an extreme sport. And in this case, my advice is: don't stay thirsty, my friends.

The 1.5L DolfinPack is the airline food & drink cart of the hydration bladder industry: designed to fit perfectly; hold way more than you'd think it would; and not waste an inch of space.

Threaten to ruin my music festival, rain?! Well I shake my fist at you and threaten right back! ... To no avail. If you're going to Burning Man, you've got a decent shot at dry weather (for now, anyway, who knows WTF is going to happen with climate change on its hellpath). Anywhere else, all bets off.

So bring your galoshes, bring your ponchos, and bring a waterproof blanket. Not just for protection during the downpour action, at which point you can throw this blankie over your head and shoulders, waterproof nylon/polyester side up, but for post-precip performances, when you can place it blue-side-down to keep the wet and mud from soaking up into your seated butt.

Ahhh, they even come in hot pink. This summer's ultimate nod to the 90s is brought to you by SlapSee Sunnies, a clever creation out of Wellington, New Zealand.

The glasses are designed with arms similar to the slap bracelets of my youth: rigid and slightly concave when extended, spiraled up and hugging your handlebars, wrist, or gearshift like a boa on a mission when smacked. A hinged nose-bridge that enables the sunglasses to collapse at the center completes the SlapSee's feat of endlessly entertaining compaction.

The PixelWhip's 80+ fibers extend a far-reaching and eye-catching* 6' from its hilt. A single button controls both on / off operation, as well as switching between a full spectrum of LED colors and light modes.

Bring out your inner baton twirler and create a multi-dimensional PixelWhip light show. Snake and thrash the fibers around and through your body, forming an optical illusion of swirling helixes and frozen light points! Or just, like, whip it.

Whip it good.

*Hopefully not literally; be careful PixelWhipping this thing around.