Narcan and Friendship Bracelets: What’s In My Concert Bag

There are a few doses of Narcan in my concert bag.

There’s a bunch of friendship bracelets on my wrists.

And somewhere in between, a metaphorical spool of invisible string.

That wasn’t always the case.

For a long time, I assumed helping people at shows meant a banner and a table and a supply chain behind you.

Something you had to be qualified for, or funded for, or at minimum organized enough to pull off.

Then I met Shannon Belton. Shannon founded and runs Public Health Everything.

She hands out supplies at concerts and festivals at a scale I’ll never touch. Watching her work made me realize something, though.

I’m a concert girlie. I always have been. When I go to shows, I already carry a concert bag. I could just put a few more things in it.

That was the epiphany. I’m not doing this at Shannon’s scale.

I’m doing it at the scale of one person at one show. One life. One small connection.

So now I pack differently.

The thing I had to unlearn

Savage Sisters is in Kensington doing wound care.

Public Health Everything is at festivals with thousands of supplies. I’m in a group chat with Swifties.

Except it isn’t just a group chat. We meet daily. We run a full curriculum. We do song analyses, one-on-one peer coaching, craft nights, book club, and speaker nights. There is an actual program built around it, and people stay sober inside it.

Next to them, it can still sound cute.

I always knew what I do matters. That was never the question.

What you can feel from people, though, is that it isn’t hardcore enough. Like the work only counts if the darkness is visible, and anything joyful is a nice hobby somebody does on the side.

Nobody has said that to my face. They don’t have to. I picked it up somewhere and turned it on myself, and I can be dismissive of myself without any help.

Recovery isn’t a hierarchy. There’s no tier system where the grittier the work is, the more it counts. The woman doing wound care in Kensington and the woman handing out Narcan in a stadium parking lot are doing the same thing. Both of them are refusing to let somebody be alone with it.

Harm reduction needs champions in every place it can get them. Kensington. The parking lot. The Swiftie meeting. All the rooms I’ll never walk into. Shannon can’t be everywhere, and neither can Savage Sisters, which isn’t a flaw in their work; it’s just the shape of the problem. Coverage is the whole game.

I can reach the Swifties. I’m allowed to help in the setting I’m actually in. So are you.

What’s in the bag

• Narcan, a few doses
• Fentanyl test strips: Pennsylvania stopped treating test strips as paraphernalia in 2023. Most states have done the same, but not all of them have, so check yours.
• Condoms
• Earplugs, a few pairs
• Electrolyte drink mix
• Sunblock and bug spray
• Portable charger
• Lollipops, mints, gum, and candy
• Hair ties
• Protein bars and fruit snacks
• Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Benadryl, antacids
• Band-Aids
• Tampons
• Hand sanitizer and wipes
• Swift Steps® cards and stickers
• Public Health Everything cards

The person who taught me this

Shannon Belton is the founder of Public Health Everything. She shows up at concerts and festivals with the supplies most of us don’t think to bring.

Here is how she explains why:

The United States has an increasingly unpredictable drug supply, with fentanyl and other potent synthetic substances contaminating drugs sold as cocaine, MDMA, counterfeit prescription pills, and other substances. As a result, people may be exposed to opioids without even realizing it.

Concerts and festivals bring together thousands of people, including experienced drug users, casual or first-time users, and people who may decide to experiment in a social setting. Because occasional users often have little or no opioid tolerance, even a small amount of fentanyl can be deadly. Having Narcan, fentanyl test strips, and other harm reduction supplies readily available gives people the tools they need to act as a bystander in an emergency.

And the part I keep coming back to:

Just as importantly, visible harm reduction efforts help reduce stigma around substance use and overdose. Seeing Narcan at a concert sends the message that overdose can happen to anyone and that being prepared is an act of caring for one another, not an endorsement of drug use. There never has, and never will be, a society without drug use, and bringing a compassionate approach is a key part of what Public Health Everything is working to do.

Being prepared isn’t an endorsement of any behavior. It’s an act of caring and showing compassion for another. That’s the whole piece in one sentence.

You don’t have to be in recovery to carry Narcan. You don’t have to be sober to deserve a safe night out.

Here is the part I think about most.

Three years ago, before Swift Steps® existed, Shannon left a comment on one of my TikToks. A supportive one. It probably took her ten seconds, and I’d bet she doesn’t remember doing it.

That’s how we met. Not at a booth, not in a parking lot, not at any of the places this article has been talking about. In a comment section.

I remember it. It’s part of why any of this exists.

That comment wasn’t big. It was a few words from a stranger on a video, and it arrived at a moment when I needed somebody to think I was worth encouraging.

Look where those ten seconds went. Swift Steps® exists. There’s a whole community of people who found each other and got to stop suffering alone, or got to keep using more safely, or just got to feel like a Swiftie again. All of it traces back to somebody deciding to type something kind under a video.

That’s what small connections do. You don’t get to see the whole distance from where you’re standing.

There’s a song for this. Of course there is. “Invisible String.” One thread running between two people who haven’t met yet, tying things together long before either of them notices. It reads like a love song. I think it’s actually about this. About how a stranger’s ten seconds can end up holding somebody else’s whole life.

So no, I’m not out here at Shannon’s scale. I’m out here with a bag on my shoulder. And you don’t even need a physical item. Sometimes a kind word is enough to connect.

And you don’t have to start in a crowd of 80,000 people. Start with your inner circle. Your group chat. Your row. The friend you always end up driving home. The people already standing next to you are the easiest place to practice this, and they’re usually the ones who need it first.

You don’t need a table. You need a bag and a willingness to hand things over.

We heal better together.

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PLAY IT AGAIN is The Sober Curator’s curated playlist of sobriety anthems—songs that capture the essence of recovery journeys and lift the spirit. From timeless classics to modern hits, these tracks inspire, heal, and motivate, no matter what genre of choice. Each song is handpicked for its power to transport you to another state of mind and remind you why living alcohol-free rocks.

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