Music in the Desert with Some Palm Trees

From Coachella

Coachella. 3 days, 2 weekends, and thousands of people. This is one of the most talked about festivals
across the US mostly due to the high attendance of A-list celebrities. This festival takes place every year in late April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA. These grounds, in the Colorado Desert, host other festivals as well like Stagecoach and Desert Tip. The grounds are roughly two hours from LA which is were a lot of people come from. But there is a large majority of people that fly into LAX in order to experience this beautiful place for themselves.

I have heard from many people that entering the festival on day 1 is the worst. Everyone enters at around the same time so the security lines are insanely long. The two days after that aren't as crazy because people are entering at their own times. The security inside the festival is a lot more intense than entering because they are genuinely concerned about people's safety, and for the celebrities of course.

Coachella makes it very easy for people to find somewhere to stay for the weekend. They help attendees find hotels near the valley as well as off site camping. But they do offer luxury on-site camping for those who want to spend an extra few bucks (way more than a few). A better description word is 'glamping', glamorous camping. These tee pee's and tents are air conditioned with 24-hour concierge service while being set on the edge of a peaceful lake. Take a look at Coachella's guide to their on site "camping." But don't get me wrong, a lot of festival go-ers are roughing it out in their cars or in their own hand pitched tents as well in a different area.

One thing that makes Coachella unique is that it isn't only a music festival it is an art festival as well. Artists are allowed ten days to create their pieces and then a director will judge which are kept. A lot of their pieces are very abstract and huge, towering over all the festival go-ers. La Curbed documented most of the pieces from attendee's instagrams. One of the most famous pieces associated with Coachella was from 2014, a larger than life astronaut as you can see below.

From the San Diego Union Tribune

Now that we covered art, next up is the music. Coachella is a pretty even mix between indie, rock, hip-hip and dance music. The music starts around noon every day and ends roughly around midnight. The lineup for 2017, in my opinion, was unbelievable. The headliners included: Radiohead, Travis Scott, Empire of the Sun, Mac DeMarco, Lady Gaga, Bon Iver, Future, DJ Snake, Matrin Garrix, Two Door Cinema Club, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Justice, New Order, Lil Uzi Vert and Grouplove. But please know, I skipped a whole lot of good people and if included everyone the list would be longer than this blog post. There are five stages and three tents. This aspect of tents makes Coachella a little different from other festivals. The best way to describe the tents are explaining them as semi indoor stages. The stages are similar to Lollapalooza in the way that each stage has a specific genre associated with it. The stage doesn't always hold true to this with an exception to some headliners being placed on larger stages for the night time shows.

From Sights and Sounds

The fashion surrounding Coachella is kind of intense, and we have the celebrities to blame for that. But no hate because I personally love to see what everyone comes up with. People wear anything from punk rock leather, to boho chic rompers to just bathing suits with the occasional mesh cover up. Harper's Bazaar put together a slide show of their best street style finds for the 2017 festival. Many celebrities go all out and call their designers, make-up and hair stylists in for this event. This is a place where they can show off their own street style but also see all their other famous friends. There are handfuls of neon wigs, extravagant jewelry, designer anything and everything. Mirror includes a few pictures of the best dressed celebrities for this past year.

Coachella is definitely on the top of my list for desired music festivals. The fact that it is in California surrounded by palm trees and the most famous artists in music makes my heart stop.

Festival Tip: When entering the tents (vs. the stages) be prepared for an all or nothing scenario. Go all in for great seats and never leave or just hum from the back. Also, sunscreen is a must!!