What to bring: Travel light with Velcro

I was a Girl Scout, so I always like to Be Prepared when I go to a show.  I usually have lip balm, gum, tissues, and other items on hand for myself and the people around me.  If you've been to a general admission concert - especially outdoor festivals - and you wanted to bring in more than just your wallet and keys, you may have found yourself in one of the following situations:

• Lack of pocket space to bring everything you want to bring into the venue,
• Stuff that melts in pockets, like lip balm or a tube of sunscreen,
• For women, bringing a purse and holding up the line while security inspects it (and then getting the evil eye from people like me who are like "COME ON - I WANNA GET A GOOD SPOT!!!!")

I have found what I think is a good solution: Velcro makes brightly colored One-Wrap strips that you can use to make bracelets and stick your stuff to them.  They come in 5-packs and you can use them, along with adhesive Velcro squares, to make ridiculous-looking but functional gear holders.

Below is a sample of things you can use, like sunscreen, eye drops, gum, small packs of tissues, hand sanitizer, witch hazel cleaning wipes (for your sweaty self or that front rail that's had thousands of other people's germs all over it), electrolyte tablets for your bottled water (for proper hydration, of course), and anything that could comfortably fit.  The travel section at your local drug store is a great place to find stuff.  Obviously, the Wet Ones wipes and hand sanitizer are too big for a wrist, but they are super handy if you have a pocket.

First, stick the scratchy Sticky-Back squares to your stuff (the soft side doesn't work with the wraps):

Then, wrap the One-Wrap around your wrist, like so:

Then stick the stuff to your bracelet (below left), and you are stylin' and ready for anything!  The wrap and sticky squares are really strong and surprisingly comfortable.  I had no skin irritation when I tried them on.  I didn't test the wrap when I was really sweaty, but it is easily adjustable, or you can attach it to a belt loop (below right) or key ring.

The only problem I had is that they aren't super long, so I wasn't able to wrap one around my upper arm, but I'm sure you could attach a few together if you really wanted to.  A bonus is that security can spend less time searching you because everything is out in the open. 

Of course, you may think that this is totally silly, but you'll be everyone's best friend when they really need something that you just happen to have with you.  And even if you make fun of me, I'll still let you borrow my sunscreen.

Happy concert-going!