By Jenni Davis / LA
ARTISTS & STAGES
Just like every year, the artists this year were FANTASTIC!
We managed to see almost all the sets we wanted including – Ratatat, Chromeo, Kings of Leon, Empire of the Sun, Duck Sauce, Nas & Damian Marley, Lauren Hill, Arcade Fire, Eryka Badu, Bright Eyes, Chemical Brothers, Cee Lo Green, AfroJack, Cut Copy, Boys Noize, Sasha, Skrillex and The Black Keys.
There were the two large stages: the main stage and outdoor stage (both outdoor) and four tents: Gobi, Mojave, Sahara and Oasis tents.
We mostly moved from the main stage to the Sahara tent because all of our favorite electronic artists played at the Sahara tent (only electronic music is played here) and it had awesome light shows and decorations hanging from the ceiling of the tent to TRIP YOU OUT! The main stage played most of the popular artists such as Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Cee Lo and Nas & Damian Marley.
I love both these venues – when it’s sunset and your enclosed in a huge area in the middle of the desert by palm trees and it’s the perfect temperature – you have a blanket out on the grass in front of the main stage and are lying down enjoying the music – NOTHING is better in life than that scenario. I love those moments. Then when it gets dark and you are in the masses of people dancing their asses off to a sick base sound system in the ever so hectically lit Sahara tent and you couldn’t be more filled with electrifying energy that seriously does get right into your bones.
It is so hard to describe how surreal the whole experience really is – you just have to go to see what I mean. Being at Coachella is the best place on earth! It’s like a fantasy world for three days of your life every year. Good food, good music, good decoration and light, good people, good weather and a HELLA good time!
ARTWORK, DECORATIONS & LIGHTS
Coachella is well known for its incredible decorations, statues and monuments and amazing lighting. They always make different art sculptures that are randomly laid out all over the venue for you to use as shade to sit under, as meeting spots for your group and just to look at because they are all so incredibly cool! I’ll try to list the most memorable ones, but you’re going to have to use your imagination
This year they had giant insect sculptures, which you could hang out under and around. There was a giant spider, giant grasshopper, and all kind of bugs. There were also lit-up color changing GIANT dandelions! My group of friends used this sculpture as our meeting point this year so the Coachella saying this year was “Meet at the Dandelions!”
There was also a giant strangely shaped glowing block that at sun down people were allowed to walk inside and there were color changing lights and lasers inside. You could walk through to the other side. There was also a giant round soccer/golf ball looking dome to go in and sit in. Another awesome and trippy piece of art were these giant fern looking plants made out of metal and if you stared at them closely they moved and swayed from side to side. There was also a giant robot skeleton animal right outside the Sahara tent.
People could climb up a ladder on it and dance. At night a glowing double decker bus with booming techno music and seats on both the inside and outside sat with wheels spinning in between the two outdoor stages. There was a glowing red and orange hat sculpture, which you could sit under as well. They had these last year but they are always cool to look at – stages with two guinea pig wheels for humans to run on and it would generate electricity for the venue. Also next to that was a giant seesaw that you and someone could play on!
What made us stand for hours just to watch out of amazement was a huge structure of three poles that had a fence around it because people couldn’t touch it – it was electricity poles that every few minutes would create lightening bolts in between them accompanied by loud buzzing sounds of mass amounts of electricity. It was like lightning was just forming in the middle of the air! Again this is all hard to describe unless you see it for yourself but hopefully my pictures give you some idea!
INSIDER TIP!
As a five year veteran to the most amazing, beautiful, surreal and musical place on earth, this year was by far the most efficient and hassle-free. Not that any other year was bad but since we were prepared and had learnt from our past mistakes, we managed to make this year wonderfully smooth!
Usually the parking situation at Coachella is by far the worst in the world, just with the huge number of people and the 16 different parking lots surrounding the events that go for miles! In the past we have been stuck in the parking lot trying to leave the event for at least 3-4 hours and NOT sober which makes it worse! Needing to pee, feeling dirty and aching feet are all made worse when sitting in the car for hours.
This year we found a lot that was just outside the last parking lot away from the festival and just did a 45-minute walk to and from the festival to the car. When it was time to leave we walked all the way out there and drove out of the lot with no hitch or problems at all. THANK GOD. It made the biggest difference in the world.
So as a suggestion for those Coachella goers – in the future park in the outer most lot and suck up the walking, its sooo worth it.
FASHION
This year the fashion at Coachella was oh so hip! I loved people watching and admiring everyone’s sense of style. Not only were there the funny costumes that people would wear just for the hell of it like banana outfits or ‘where’s waldo’ or the joker, but I personally really like the younger teen girls fashion.
It was very bohemian and vintage this year. Lots of brown leather purses and old school back packs. A LOT of lace tops this year and long bohemian flowy skirts. I wore with my outfit a leather headband with a gold string braided into it. When I got to Coachella millions of girls were wearing it too!
The strappy roman sandals were huge as well as Keds and Vans. This year I wore a pair of dark blue Keds and ended up getting huge blisters on my feet from the walking. They were brand new so that’s probably why but DEFINITELY wear comfortable shoes to Coachella and bring band-aids because just the walking and standing around KILLS your feet.
A popular choice in terms of color that goes for every year of course was NEON colors on bathing suits, tops, shoes, shorts and those RayBan sunglasses that we all like in every color imaginable. Another big thing this year were rompers, which I lovvvvee and they came in all different patterns and colors. Basically dress code at Coachella was barely any clothes It was so hot this year girls were in bikinis and guys all with their shirts off –yummaayyy – definitely loved that!
The temperature went up to about 100 F/ 37 C and during the day we were literally cooking in the heat. But what’s great is as sunset approaches it cools down and at night the temperature is perfect. Also if one feels overheated during the day there is a tent in the middle of the venue that regular non-listed DJ’s spin in and there are huge water sprays that shoot out into the crowd so you can cool down. This is where you might not want to go if your wearing white….but then again last year I saw a streaker and from the weirdo’s that you do find at Coachella – not a big deal.
Well – that is my recap! I hope you enjoyed it See you at Coachella next year – I’ll be there with bells on!
Coachella Exhaustion
Chocolate Covered Classics 
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