re: What are your top three essentials to the perfect tailgate?

I actually did a test run of all my equipment today.

Outside of food and drinks.....

Generator: You want quiet. I have both a Honda and a Generac. Both are quiet.

Satellite TV: I recommend Dish Network over Direct TV because I love the convenience of the Tailgater Dish.

Canopies and Chairs, and Tables. Plenty of shade is a must, especially with a larger group of people. Bring extra chairs, and at least one table.

Music and Music player: Be courteous to your tailgating neighbors. Unfortunately there are a select few setups that feel the need to have extremely large speakers and non-stop rap music with profanity. Krewe of Monreaux comes to mind. I personally use the Ion Tailgater speaker and connect to my laptop via Bluetooth. It's great and plenty loud enough for my tailgate, and not annoying to those around me. My playlist is over 500 songs and is a mixture of country, classic rock, rap, r&b, and zydeco. But two things, it's all radio edited and everything is upbeat. Won't put my guests to sleep. Also NO LIVE MIC. Don't be that guy.

Also I recommend a few tailgating games like washers or cornhole. A new one I have for this season that I recently bought is called Mashball. It's created by a guy from Metairie and is pretty fun to play. We're an older group so we don't play beer pong or flip cup.