I’ve now made my way down to the heart of Tennessee for the best week of the year twice in a row now, and that celebrated title goes to The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

Camping out among one hundred thousand other people stoked to see similar shows that I’m into, eat the most amazing food you can think of, and be among beautiful people is the highlight of my year for two straight years. As much as I love the music, I love the experience, culture, and community with the people even more.

That’s why setting up your campsite to be “home base” is so important so that you can hang with other people, have a good time, and still get the sleep you need (which is a huge functional part of the festival weekend that many people forget about).

So, I decided to stop and revisit my experience this past weekend to write down what I must bring next year, and I’ve figured out a few things that are must haves for my future Bonnaroos. But one thing that stuck out to me as useful kind of surprised it.

Without realizing it until after the festival, I suddenly figured out how absolutely useful cardboard boxes would’ve been as storage at my campsite. There were so many things scattered around camp by the time Sunday came around that we had a somewhat tough time of finding what we needed, when we needed it. This could have saved precious time while also fending off losing anything we may have let wander into someone else’s campsite.

I know that next year we’ll be packing more appropriate and useful items while also cutting back on things we really didn’t need as much, so adding cardboard boxes to my list of things I have to have is important to me. The best part about it that is in spirit of Bonnaroo is that cardboard is free, easy to assemble, and biodegradable in a way that plastic containers are not. These three things make it the perfect item to have when it comes to keeping all of your loose things in a storage container that you know it’ll be in when you go to find it in the mornings or evenings back at camp.

While a lot of festival attendees may not think of cardboard as ultra useful, I’m beginning to realize it’s what I need from every year here on out.