For those of you not privy to the knowledge of what Coachella is, I've written about it very briefly previously here.
I attended last year, but it was a rough one. I had just moved to LA almost exactly a month before and I came down with soul melting head cold the day we pulled into car camping. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into and hadn't spent that much time with the people we were going with. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I just feel like I would have enjoyed myself a heck of a lot more minus all of the above issues.
So, this year I was bound and determined to make it count.
The following is a teeny tiny snippet of the weekend. I feel like it was a whole lifetime rolled into the 3 days we were there and there is no possible way to explain or relay the full experience through words and pictures but I hope I'm able to solidify it to you, my fair and lovely readers.
First and foremost, you gotta put your game face on and show up with patience and a non-exhaustive good attitude.
We rolled out of our beds in Madison, WI at 5am Thursday morning and didn't roll into our campsite in Indio, CA and get set up until until 3am Friday morning. We then got an average of 5 hours of sleep a night.
There were approximately 85,000 people who attended the festival this year.
Dealing with general society en masse and overall lack of sleep can take a toll.
There were a lot of deep breaths and attitude checks through out the weekend (not to mention a good dose of social lubrication).
Second, you gotta take your most solid friends with you.
The only people you want to be rolling around this alternate universe with you are the ones who will take care of you and who you will take care of no matter what happens.
We saw a lot of people who were lacking this support system.
Including this dude:
We saw him from afar. Where are his friends? We were worried because we didn't see his chest moving AT ALL. Please note the mobile EMT guys leaning up against the wall in the back ground. Dude is definitely checking his cellphone.
So what do we do? Go in for closer inspection.
At this point, we're fairly certain this gentleman has expired.
K taking photos gets the attention of EMT guys and thankfully enough he is alive and his friend is rolling up with water in hand.
Good job, friend, good job!
Another important reason you want to take good friends with you is to prevent you from making major fashion miscalculations.
Yes, a really fun part about Coachella is being able to wear things that you wouldn't wear in normal day to day activities, but sometimes you need an outside perspective to throw out the, "Dude, really?"
Of course K took a photo. Either there was a sever lack of friends or apparently under-cheeks were "in" this year.
Where are your friends?!
Let me break this picture down for you:
1)Moon Boots with jean shorts, in the desert
2)Fanny Pack
3)Neon Pink Sunglasses lanyard
4)Physically nursing the box of coconut water
If he had some solid friends, they would have alerted him to his over accessorization.
I'm going to be real honest with you. For a split second during the afternoon that the temperature dropped to 50 something and it started raining, we were all a little jealous of this dudes outfit.
That split second passed real quick.
Something tells me no amount of friendship could have helped the woman in the fuzzy boots.
She knows how to party.
Another reason you take awesome friends with you is to give you courage to do things you wouldn't normally do.
Like take a picture with the smoldering hot stars of one of your favorite book/show series.
If you watch True Blood on HBO you will recognize this gentleman, Joe Manganiello, as the werewolf, Alcide. If you have read the books, you'll understand the casting director did an amazing job. He is Alcide, incarnate.
After spotting him in the crowd and lamenting how I wanted to take a picture of him but not having the courage to go up to him, my dear friend Merri motored right up to him and asked if I could snap a picture with him.
He generously agreed and was really lovely and sweet about it.
Merri, the whole weekend was amazing and I can't thank you enough!
Something that could impact your experience greatly are the people who camp next to you.
This year, we lucked out.
We dubbed the kids on the right "Sweat Lodge". They had a massive huge industrial grade canopy with walls that took up 2 camping spots.
Some of them were from Wisconsin.
Obviously they were awesome.
I might have mentioned above, but social lubrication is kind of a must when you're standing in a mass of people.
This wasn't even crowded.
This is really only one of three times we hit up the beer tent.
We brought most of our beverages with us.
But since you couldn't bring hard alcohol into the campsite, we had to smuggle it in. We did this by emptying out water bottles in the middle of a case of water, filled them with vodka or clear tequila and then put them back in place in the case of water.
As the weekend surged on, we kind of lost track of which ones were water, and which were alcohol.
So, what do we do? We play vodka roulette with our sweat lodge neighbors.
Don't worry. I got the water.
One of the very most important things is obviously the music.
That really is the reason you go.
Here's a recap of the shows that we saw in the order we saw them:
Friday:
Other Lives
Givers
Yuck
Group Love
Girls
Black Keys
M83
Black Angels
Datsik
Saturday:
Tune Yards
Kaiser Chiefs
The Shins
Flying Lotus
SBTRKT
Radiohead
Sunday:
Gardens & Villa
Santigold
Beats Antique
Justice
Girl Talk
Florence + The Machine
Dr. Dre + Snoop Dogg
All the shows were super amazing. Everyone played their ever loving hearts out and still now I seriously struggle to pick a favorite.
If you think that the music is the only art to experience, you're seriously missing out.
You MUST stop and enjoy the art installations.
This was made out of bamboo and had moving LED's on it at night.
Of course some dumb-ass hippy had to climb it and then in turn, fall off of it.
Good job dude. Where are your friends?
These were actually screens that they would project changing animated graphics on at night. That was cool during the day and it was super cool at night.
This guy didn't show up until Sunday. It's a gigantic orchid on a cherry picker and because Friday and Saturday were too windy, they weren't able to bring it out until Sunday.
Here's your perspective. That's me and Merri standing next to it. It was massive. This also had LED's and internal lighting in the fabric, so at night it was absolutely magical.
These also didn't come out until Sunday.
They were essentially giant tubular garbage bags filled with air. They were amazing.
They were amazing until the drunkies showed up and tried to ride them and broke holes in them.
It was 1pm on Sunday afternoon. Drink some water people!
These were giant Dr. Seuss-like trees by the misting tents.
I think K and I are going to try to build some for our backyard.
Check out the rest of my pictures on Flickr. I could go on and on and on about the art installations.
Whoever coordinates that does a fantastic job. Bravo.
I'm not even sure how to wrap up this post. I could ramble continuously for hours.
The journey there and back seemed like it took forever and time seemed to speed by while we were there.
There's nothing I wouldn't give to keep memories that were made that weekend.
You know where you'll be able to find us the same time next year.
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