Coachella 2011

I've been meaning to write this up for a while now, but in the whirlwind that was finals and packing and getting home and getting back into work, this slipped through the cracks! But anyway, in mid-April I spent a weekend in Indio, CA at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It's a weekend of little sleep, hundreds of bands and the craziest, kookiest people I've ever seen. It has also, for the past two years, been the highlight of my time in california! So here's what happened...

I spent all of the Thursday we left just dying to go. In Psych Stats, my friend Bayley just happened to have a care package from her mom with lots of playdough in it. Sooooo this happened:

We left late thursday night for Indio and got there around 10 or 11. We checked into the Embassy Suites and I was extremely happy to be in a bed at a reasonable hour. It was a huge step up from my experience last year with Clara in which we got to Indio at 11:45 but didn't get to our camping plot until about 4:45 in the morning, where we set up an air mattress without a tent and curled up for bed.

On Friday morning (this year) we got up somewhat early and went down to the lobby for a ridiculously nice made to order breakfast and a glimpse at the crazy people we'd meet at the festival. As we were getting up to leave my roommate said she was running to get a cup and the guy sitting at a table behind me said "Itssss CUP TIME!" I turned around and chuckled awkwardly… "Uh.. yeah…". He continued to talk to me until some of my friends came to save me.

Next thing I know we're on the shuttle to COACHELLA 2011!! The bus ride was tantalizing and awful and a tease. We had to stop at another hotel/resort before we could go to the actual grounds but we passed the time well enough with putting on our complicated wrist bands (which warned of fees if they were put on incorrectly), taking pictures, making friends and general merriment!

Finally, after what felt like YEARS, we arrived at the festival grounds. Now its hard to keep the whole thing in perspective, but Coachella is held on the Empire Polo Club fields and the number of people who attend reaches the hundred thousands. What starts out looking like this:

Turns into this:

These maps are provided for us as well as the times and stages of the bands.

Anyway, after marveling at the masses of people, cars and number of security checkpoints, we finally got through and into the full swing of things. Coachella is, for many people, solely a music festival, but its official name is in fact the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. The art installations range from psychedelic light up Horton-Hears-A-Who-esque flowers/clovers to LED light shows in the Sahara Tent to anything really… I would advise anyone reading this to go to the Coachella website (coachella.com) and peruse the art from the years past, its all amazing and fun and interesting and it really does add to the whole aesthetic of the experience.

The first day of Coachella is full of running around and being overly excited, and learning to cope with the blazing desert sun and limited access to water. So, undoubtably people will be affected poorly by the conditions. My suitemates and I made it until almost 5:30 before anyone was too poorly affected, but Kristina got hit hard by the exhaustion and we had to find some shade for her to nap in for a while. :)

When the time comes for the sun to go down, people sigh. Not only in relief that the glaring, burning sun will be gone, but also because of the famous Indio, CA sunsets.

My first year at Coachella with Clara was made even more exciting because I had the amazing opportunity to spend it with some of my old friends from High School, Lauren and Nick. I've known Lauren since I was 9 or 10, and we've always shared music, so being able to share this amazing experience not only once, but twice (!) is something I will cherish forever! This year I only caught up with her a couple times, but each was great!

I'm not the most eloquent person in the world, but even if I was, I don't think there is really anyway you can capture the true wonders of Coachella if you haven't been. The Pictures really do help a lot, but even so, I was still blown away all over again this year when I showed up. The number of amazing moments and beautiful views and amazing things that happen are impossible to describe. But here are some pictures I took that give you at least a glimpse of the amazing-ness that is Coachella:

Cold War Kids

Broken Social Scene

The Strokes

Mumford and Sons

Kings of Leon

Just because I took the time to write this down many months ago, I'll include the list of the artists I saw each day!

FRIDAY: 12th planet

Excision

Odd Future

Cee Lo Green

Cold War Kids

Cut Copy

Black Keys

Crystal Castles

Kings of Leon

Chemical Brothers

SATURDAY: Tallest Man on Earth

Two Door Cinema Club

Broken Social Scene

Bright Eyes

Mumford & Sons

Animal Collective

Arcade Fire

SUNDAY

fun.

Jack's Mannequin

Wiz Khalifa

Jimmy Eat World

Foster the People

The National

The Strokes

Kanye West

And all of that doesn't even include the dozens of little snippets of other bands heard each day just walking around the festival grounds!

Out of all the cool/amazing/breathtaking/fun-as-hell moments that happened over that weekend in April, there was one phenomenal moment that really actually did take my breath away. On day two, Clara, Sophie and I shoved our way to the front of the Main Stage in preparation for a stretch of 5 or 6 bands we really wanted to see. WE showed up about half way through Broken Social Scene, got even closer to the front for Bright Eyes and by Mumford and Sons we were against the barrier to the left of the stage and then Animal Collective took the stage. The final show of the night was Arcade Fire, and I want to say that probably 2/3 of the festival attended. Now being close to the stage always makes the experience more amazing, but not only were we close and in good company, we did a lot of celebrity spotting (Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kirsten Dunst, Danny Devito and others). But even all of this didn't make this moment the best of the weekend for me. We were enjoying the Arcade Fire set thoroughly and singing and dancing along, when, during the second to last song, a stage hand was standing nearby. He leaned in towards me and pointed upwards, towards the top of the stage. In the darkness I couldn't see much really, except the faint outline of a HUGE black shape slowing aligning itself directly over the stage. "WHAT IS IT?" I scream/ask him, he just mysteriously shrugs his shoulders and moves away. Now I was just waiting for the big finale that was sure to come. THEN, the bands final song began playing and it is truly one of my favorites. It's called Wake Up and has been featured in many things, most notably the film "Where the Wild Things Are". Anyway I started filming the song because I love it so much and it the most amazing thing was hearing thousands upon thousands of people sing along. I'll let the clip speak for itself, but about half way through is when "it" happens.

As you can see and hear, it was an amazing experience. Hundreds of glowing inflatable beach balls fell from the roof of the stage and were thrown and bounced around for the remainder of the set. It was surreal, I felt completely united with every person around me from the sheer joy of the moment and at the same time completely alone in my bliss.

It was something I had never experienced before but it still remains one of the best moments i've ever seen in a concert. I even was able to take one of the inflatable balls home, which was exciting until the battery in the ball died. So overall, Coachella blew my mind, continues to blow my mind and hopefully will again in the future. When I was little, I always dreamed of being a singer, a star on stage, and after coachella two years in a row that dream has been a bit refined to a dream of singing on a stage at Coachella, looking out over the packed Polo Fields and giving people the feeling that I got, pure happiness.

I recommend that anyone who has the chance should absolutely go. I would say its worth it to rearrange your life, fly or drive across the country… it is worth the hundreds you have to pay, it's worth the desert heat, it's worth the sweat and exhaustion. ITS WORTH IT.