Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert

Since I left Coachella last year, I hoped to spend today checking in guests who stay at the campground where I work at the festival. I even expected it from mid-July until the beginning of March. Then, life changed unexpectedly. Even now with Coachella rescheduled for October, everything is uncertain. It’s crazy because life is always uncertain. Anything can happen at any moment to change the course of the expected. Sometimes it could incredible, great, or good. Sometimes it could be terrible, awful, or bad. Sometimes it could be crazy, wild, or unthinkable. Regardless of what it is, it could happen because nothing is ever a guarantee. With that being said, most times we can rely on things. We can make plans and look forward to them. Right now though, everything is predictably uncertain, when usually it’s just predictable. It’s hard to tell where we’ll be in a few weeks let alone a few months given the state of the world. So, I think the best we can do right now is take it one day at a time and remain hopeful, but also keep expectations low. With that advice it’s safe to say I’m still looking forward to this weekend, specifically tomorrow for reasons involving Coachella.

In January, Coachella announced a documentary premiering on Youtube on March 30th that would commemorate 20 years of the festival. Over the last month sometime though, they announced that the premiere would happen April 10th at Noon PST, the exact time gates were supposed to open for Weekend 1 (big sigh). Over the last week the festival has been promoting the documentary, calling the circumstances surrounding the premiere “Couchella.” They even released a preview for it that features many acts who took to the Coachella stages over the last 20 years like Beyoncé, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Post Malone, and the famous Tupac hologram. The preview also included commentary from Billie Eilish, Moby, Ice Cube, and Perry Farrell. In addition to that, they’ve been teasing a few acts in the documentary throughout the week.

The other day I checked the Coachella website and it has since been updated with a whole page about the documentary. It gives a timeline of each year and mentions an artist for each one. They’ve also added 4 playlists featuring those artists and more. I’m expecting the artists mentioned on the page to be featured in the documentary. If it’s anything like the 2006 documentary, I’ll probably love it. My heart will also probably ache for Coachella. I’ll wish I was there instead of here. I’ll wish everything was predictable instead of predictably uncertain. Honestly over the next 2-3 weeks, I’ll wish I was in Indio. I already do. That’s where I was supposed to be. Nothing is going to change that feeling for me, so I might as well embrace it and just let myself feel it. I waited long enough and I deserve to feel it.

So I decided, for the next two weekends, which were supposed to be Coachella 2020, I’m going to try to live my best Coachella life and Couchella. I’m going to watch the documentary every day. Maybe I’ll mix in the 2006 documentary as well. I’m also going to try to find a video of last year’s Sunday Service from Coacheaster. I plan to attempt to make my favorite dish from catering too, Orzo pasta with cream sauce. I’ll probably look at old pictures and videos I took from 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 too. It won’t be Coachella but I’m making Coachella a part of my life over the next two weeks regardless of the fact that it’s not actually happening. I have nothing better to do anyway so why not?!

I encourage you to do the same. There’s no reason you can’t live the greatest party in the desert in your own head and dream about the next Coachella whenever it happens to come. It will come too! If I can wait 4 years from knowing about Coachella to actually attending, we’ll be able to get through this wait. See you on Youtube when the gates open! Happy Couchella!

 

Coachella 2019 Recap

I never got a chance to post about the set times. As soon as I arrived in Indio, I got down to business and before we all knew it Weekend 1 began. I haven’t posted a Coachella recap since I attended because I really didn’t get much free time working the festival the last two years. This year that changed a bit. I took a new position about 2 weeks before I flew to California and the rest is history.

I worked a lot during the days leading up to the festival. I also worked Thursday and Friday, Day 1, but by Saturday I was free to have fun and prepped at my leisure for the following week. I worked offsite at the Renaissance Hotel in Indian Wells doing check-in for the campground I work at. On Thursday we were open from 12 p.m. until 2 a.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., which changed to 8 p.m. during Weekend 2 because of the road closures happening around 9. We also opened for an extra 6 hours on Saturday morning-early afternoon of Weekend 1 because more people than expected did not check in. However our check-in manager released me around 7 p.m. Friday night of Weekend 1 so I went to the festival and was able to see every Friday night act I wanted to see.

The 1975 set was my favorite of the festival. It was crazy because I walked into Coachella and went straight to the Main Stage for the set. I didn’t stop to take Coachella in like I normally do when I get in the festival for the first time. There was barely time to look at the art or anything else. It was worth it though for the set I was about to see. Matt Healy brought it, from cool visuals to a moving platform onstage that Healy walked and danced on. I also stood next to two members of the band All Time Low, which made for an added bonus to the set. I danced my face off and had the best time. As soon as the 1975 ended we went straight to Outdoor for the end of RÜFÜS DU SOL. I tried not to prioritize RÜFÜS because I’ll be seeing them in August, but I was happy to catch some of their set. They killed it as usual. Once they ended, it was back to Main Stage for Janelle Monaé. She was a lot of fun and brought tons of female fire power to the Main Stage. She even brought out Lizzo during her set.

Throughout the two weeks I was able to see all of if not part of almost every artist I wrote about. I saw Turnover, Bob Moses, part of Maggie Rogers, part of Gryffin, part of Tame Impala, Mansionair, Lizzo, Zedd, and Ariana Grande Weekend 1. Maggie Rogers played at the Gobi tent which was way too small for the masses that she brought to her set. That was the only reason I went to Gryffin instead during Weekend 1 since their sets overlapped. I stayed for her entire set Weekend 2 since it was slightly less crowded. During Weekend 2 I saw ARIZONA, all of Maggie Rogers, Weezer, part of Billie Eilish, part of Lizzo, Dermot Kennedy, most of Zedd, CHVRCHES, and NGHTMRE. I also attended Kanye’s Sunday Service, which was a once in a lifetime experience. I skipped Mac DeMarco overall. I feel like I really attended Coachella this year, but worked at the same time. Dermot Kennedy was really the surprise set for me this year. He was incredible and made me a fan. His style is very Bon Iver-esque, but Irish. CHVRCHES was also an incredible set. It was definitely my second favorite, which worked out to be the second to the last Coachella set I saw Weekend 2. My favorite set, The 1975, was the first set I saw Weekend 1. I definitely started and ended Coachella strong.

Once Saturday hit, I had time to take in the art, which payed homage to art of the past 20 years, and enjoyed plenty of ice cream in the festival as well. The astronaut from 2014 came back with a new design, as well as the hippos from 2015. The Spectra tower will be there for a few more years and was also back. The event also had several more pieces for Coachella fans to take in. The antarctic dome became one of my favorite attractions on the final day since it featured a RÜFÜS DU SOL theme this year. I went inside 3 times. I was also inside the festival for the ideal sunset hours and fully immersed myself in the Coachella vibe.

I love Coachella so much as you all know, and I’ve loved working it and attending it. This year held a special place in my heart though. I met new people, got closer with people I knew before, and got to hang out with so many of my friends over the 3 weeks I spent in the desert (Stagecoach included as Week 3). I felt a happiness that made me appreciate music, my life, my job, and the people I’m surrounded with. I don’t really have the appropriate words to describe it. It was beyond words for me this year, and I hope next year can compete.

Thanks again Coachella for all the big moods, good vibes, and sick times. There’s no place I’d rather be.