Coachella 2022 Re-Cap

Well…I’m back. We did it. Coachella happened and it was as normal as could be. I look back on my time there over the last 4 weeks and feel so grateful for all of it. It’s still as magical as ever. I realized during Coachella how I can be alone on the polo fields and never feel lonely. There’s always something to see and do there. I feel like a lot of festivals are like this, but with Coachella there’s just a comfort for me that doesn’t always exist in other places. The art was great. The fashion was back. The vibes were immaculate and the music was unforgettable. So here’s what I was able to see over the two weekends….

The hype for Weekend 1 lasted from the weekend before I arrived until Day 1 Weekend 1. It was a little chaotic at times on the work front because we had a lack of staff, but my pals and I stepped up to make it work and the team that I did have was amazing. The biggest surprise of Weekend 1 came when the set times were released on Thursday and Arcade Fire was listed for a 6:45 p.m. set at Mojave. I couldn’t even believe it was real! So yes Arcade Fire played Weekend 1 and I missed it because I wasn’t onsite until 8:30 p.m. The “livestream” didn’t air the set until 9 p.m either, when I was vibing at the festival. It was okay though! I was able to see Phoebe Bridgers and Harry Styles including the Shania Twain appearance. I missed Bishop Briggs and Lost Kings as I expected due to the early set times. Lane 8 overlapped Harry Styles so that became a Weekend 2 set for me as the Danimal and I saw the beginning of Lane 8, hopped over to Harry to see who he would bring out (Lizzo!!!), and then returned to see the end of the Lane 8 set.

The music I wanted to see on Saturday was abundant. Saturday Weekend 1 began with seeing Beach Goons with Hailey before she started her shift and then followed up with Wallows on Outdoor at 4 p.m. and Emo Nite at Sahara right after Wallows. There was a bit of overlap between the two but I couldn’t bring myself to leave Wallows. I’m now very into the band with the kid from 13 Reasons Why (he should quit acting and just do music in my opinion now) and am already making plans to see their Philly show in June. They were too good live. After they ended though, I met up with some friends at Emo Nite. It was extremely cool to see the masses singing along to all the emo classics. Tom Higgenson from Plain White T’s made an appearance to play “Hey There Delilah,” which earned a huge sing along from the crowd. My plan was to see girl in red after Emo Nite but I needed to return back to the Safari home base to start on some work for Weekend 2. Girl in red became my Weekend 2 priority and it was one of my favorites after going back to back with Wallows again with the Danimal. Yes, I also decided to see Wallows again Weekend 2. Again I am now VERY into them. L’Imperatrice was another Weekend 2 set for me (super fun and full of dancing) after a recommendation from my buddy Noah. I also caught the Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach appearance at Emo Nite Weekend 2 and heard him sing “Last Resort.”

I needed to see Turnstile Weekend 1 as I had to meet up with my long time friend Chelsea to see one set as we usually do. It was Turnover in 2019 and Turnstile in 2022. Hailey also joined halfway through the set and so did my friend Lexi. It was definitely full of hardcore tunes and plenty of moshing. I saw the end of Disclosure both weekends with a little more of the set during Weekend 2. I definitely danced along to “Latch” twice though. I saw Flume both weekends as well, but my highlight of Flume came during Weekend 1 when I saw Dave Bayley aka Wavey Davey from Glass Animals hanging out in the viewing area. Hailey went over to him to say hey and he ended up telling her they were there to make an appearance during Denzel Curry’s set the next day. At that point, my Weekend 1 Sunday night plans changed from Jamie xx to Denzel Curry because Glass Animals are everything.

Late Saturday night I saw Hot Chip Weekend 1 and most of Billie Eilish. Weekend 2 I saw Caribou and made the mistake of leaving early. Billie Eilish brought out Hayley Williams from Paramore. They covered Misery Business and I missed it. I was so upset, but the fact that it was acoustic made it a little better. It was still one of the biggest talking points of Weekend 2.

Sunday’s afternoon sets alternated for me on Weekend 1 and Weekend 2. I saw Olivia O’Brien Weekend 1 and part of Hayden James Weekend 2 (a work meeting held me back from the full set). Olivia O’Brien might have brought out Jake Paul at the end of her set after ending it with “Josslyn” and I might have hated it. Then I hit Maggie Rogers set both weekends as well. Maggie Rogers sunset set happened and I was fully immersed in it. On Sunday night, I saw the beginning of Duke Dumont Weekend 1 and the end of the set Weekend 2. Weekend 1 we decided to hit up the tiki bar instead of sticking around for the rest of Duke so I finally got there after 4 years! Then it was Denzel Curry time Weekend 1 and Jamie xx for me Weekend 2. I saw the full sets of both, but the highlight of Denzel Curry was hearing Tokyo Drifting with Glass Animals. The highlight of Jamie xx was hanging and dancing with a bunch of my Safari fam. Both sets were a great time. On Weekend 1, we took in all of Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd’s combined set and I hung around for the end of it Weekend 2 as well because I wasn’t ready for Coachella to be over (never am). I soaked up my last moments on the polo fields wandering around, listening to music, and taking pictures for the mems of two incredible weekends back in Indio.

After a third weekend, aka Stagecoach weekend, I’m finally back home and experiencing the Coachella Valley withdrawal, but it needed to come to an end at some point. It’s still my favorite place to work and I feel like I could do it every weekend. My body, however, would argue. I realized yesterday that this year has a lot of new music releases from some of my favorite artists so stay tuned for album reviews going forward as I’m already behind on them. That’s it for Coachella though. Three years in the making and we finally got to do it again. Until next time, Coachella forever and always!

Coacheligible

2019 is almost over. The festival season is surely winding down as well. I consider Austin City Limits as the last major festival of the year even though there’s still several smaller festivals in the weeks following ACL until the holidays. With the end of the year approaching, there’s only 2 months until announcements for the 2020 festival season begin (some like Okeechobee and Stagecoach already have), particularly like Coachella, the first major music festival of the year.

For the last 5 years, I’ve previewed Coachella consistently. As you might have already figured out, and if you didn’t already know, Coachella is my favorite music festival. It’s one of the reasons why I work in music. With that being said, I spent a good portion of last night talking with a coworker friend about potential Coachella 2020 artists. We discussed artists and bands who have dropped or have upcoming new music, who haven’t played Coachella in a while, and who we’d love to see at the festival next year. Playing major music festivals like Coachella also comes with one more component for bands and artists: the radius clause.

Based on some internet finds, what we know about Coachella’s radius clause is that between December 15th prior to Coachella until May 1st after Coachella acts cannot play any festival in North America and cannot play any “hard ticket” concerts in Southern California. In addition, they’re also not allowed to publicize any tour stops in California, Arizona, Oregon, or Washington until after the Coachella lineup is announced, publicize any performances at competing festivals in California, its bordering states, and Washington, or a headlining concert in Southern California, until May 8, or publicize any performances at competing festivals in the remainder of the United States again until the Coachella lineup is announced. Exceptions to this are the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, South by Southwest, and Ultra Music Festival as well as appearances at Las Vegas casinos, or tour stops in other parts of Nevada minus any Las Vegas festival appearances.

Coachella isn’t the only music festival that imposes these clauses. Most music festivals have some type of radius clause which includes major contenders like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and South by Southwest to name a few. However, Coachella’s clauses are notable as they made news for the 2018 lawsuit imposed by a smaller music festival called Soul’d Out in Oregon. The lawsuit has since been dismissed.

The radius clause was another thing we considered last night when discussing possible Coachella performers. I’m even realizing today the clause throws out Vampire Weekend as one of my Coachella hopefuls since they’re headlining Okeechobee in March. That is unless they negotiated around the clause. This is always a possibility for performers. Sometimes smaller acts get around the clause because it would hurt them financially to not play shows, but other times it’s not always smaller acts. In 2018, top-billed Coachella artist SZA headlined Buku, but her team most likely negotiated and she was given permission to do so. More often than not though, bands and artists abide by the rules. Adding Coachella to your resume is a big deal. It’s one of the most well-known, popular, largest, and most talked about music festivals in the United States, if not the world so playing the festival is always a special accomplishment no matter how many times you do it. The same goes for working and attending the festival!

In the coming weeks I’m sure headliner rumors will start popping up and there will be more speculation over who will play in Indio this spring. Regardless of the lineup, which since 2014 hasn’t entirely impressed me, I’ll be stoked and on high alert for a twitter notification with a new lineup poster come January 2nd. Coachella will always be special for me no matter who plays, but there’s no shame in getting excited for possibility!

 

 

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.