Lunchbox looks to be the bag that transforms the festival scene

To the undiscerning eye, Lunchbox looks like any other festival bag on the market. However, the behind-the-scenes process of creating Lunchbox —the bag that aims to transform the festival experience— is hardly ordinary. The brainchild of entrepreneur and festival lover Tom Worcester, Lunchbox initially began as a solution to Tom’s own personal experience of difficulties with theft and security during Ultra Music Festival 2018. A strenuous journey of field research and countless prototypes later, the current Lunchbox for the official launch is the ninth iteration of the original product.

Lunchbox strives to be the best festival bag by providing functionality and design that checks off these three key points: anti-theft, water refill efficiency, and security line-proof. Arguably the best feature of Lunchbox is its anti-theft qualities. Built with military-grade 1680D ballistic nylon, the exterior shell doubles as both water-resistant and cut-resistant. A secret bonus of the exterior panels is it masks as a fake pocket that easily alerts the wearer to pickpocketing while it’s happening, but simultaneously conceals and protects their belongings. Even better, Lunchbox employs inverted zippers that rest on the wearer’s back to ensure maximum protection — a smart, but rarely used idea.

However, the feature that Tom feels the most passionately proud of is Lunchbox’s advanced water refill technology, which the team patented. Unlike the standard set-up, the Lunchbox hydration bladder sits horizontally in a dedicated water compartment so when the wearer goes to refill water, they can slide the Lunchbox off one shoulder to the front of their body and have the bladder automatically sit upright. The water bladder itself also uniquely lacks a nozzle cap and opts for a sliding clip that seals in a tight, foldable bladder opening. With these hassle-free functionalities, Lunchbox aims to reduce water refill time to just 15 seconds and transform the water refill experience from the fumbling mess it currently is to an efficient and seamless part of the festival.

How does Lunchbox add up against pre-existing popular choices? The competitor landscape is indeed oversaturated, but not necessarily with quality festival bags. Hydration packs mainly fall into one of two categories — trendy and functional, but rarely have overlapping qualities. Leading manufacturers like Vibedration and iHeartRaves value aesthetic, sporting hundreds of flashy, stylish skins and designs whereas the popular mainstay Camelbak very much leans on water filling capabilities as its strength. However, neither completely take into account the significant issues of theft and leave that gaping hole for festival-goers to experience firsthand.

Where Lunchbox truly triumphs over its competitors is that every aspect of it has been designed with the user in mind, with every possible festival scenario of inconvenience thought out and combated with a functional solution. From loop-in night-proof EL wires to help locate squads to side pockets for sunglasses, and hidden pockets for easy access to phone chargers, Lunchbox doesn’t overlook any detail that would make a festival attendees experience even just incrementally better and that fact truly epitomizes the statement of: a festival bag made by a festival-goer for festival-goers.

The whole foundation of Lunchbox sits on giving back to the live music community and Tom avidly makes that a point when he talks about wanting to partner with artists on exclusive Lunchbox skins. “Aspirationally what we want to do is partner with artists and then take a percentage of the sale, if not the whole thing, and donate to a charity that they [the artist] cares about”, Tom says. At the core of Lunchbox’s mission, Tom and the team want to improve the festival experience by extending not just their product, but also their operations to bigger horizons. “We want to be partnering with these festivals, take over their operations, take over the Lunchbox water line, put these bags in the hands of medical and security for visual identification. Later on, we want to figure out how to work in the international market where we’re targeting international festivals like Ultra Europe and figuring out how we can reduce the risk of traveling to these destination festivals.” With big ambitions in mind, the best of Lunchbox is yet to come.

The Lunchbox team will be at Bonnaroo, Firefly, EDC Las Vegas, Governors Ball, and more. Check out Lunchbox here.