Coachella Music Festival

You haven't lived a full life until you've experienced Coachella at least once in your lifetime. I have always heard so much about this extravagant music festival every year but never had the opportunity to attend due to scheduling conflicts or simply....money! This three day music fest costs approximately $350 (depending on when you buy the tickets), but expect to pay $350 to $400 for one ticket even at the early bird price, which is....get ready for this....almost a year prior to the event! For this year's festivities, I purchased my tickets in June of 2011 and let me just say that it was absolutely worth the wait!

Lines to get into the campgrounds (Photo by Gurl in LA)

I was fortunate to have my beau and one of my coolest buddy join me on this wonderful adventure as we traveled to the city of Indio on Thursday to grab our camping spot and begin our quest for life fulfillment.  Upon arrival you're automatically directed in the long line of car campers preparing to be searched for drugs and liquor and anything else that isn't permitted into the campgrounds.  Once you enter and get settled in with your tent set up and beers chilled, it's nonstop partying after that.  The first night at the campgrounds is pretty laid back, you get to roam around the meet your neighbors for the next few days, get acquainted with the layout of the festival, where the port-o-pottys are located, and see where the portable showers are so we know where to jet to first thing in the morning!  There's a "general store" where you can buy just about anything you need that you might have forgotten but just be ready to pay a good penny, as I had forgotten my razor and ended up forking out $3 for a plastic disposable razor, but hey, people do desperate things at desperate times.

View from our campsite (Photo by Gurl in LA)

The organizers advertised food trucks being available at the festival but honestly, we saw ONE truck, The Lime Truck, and it was overpriced and gross. The availability of decently priced and quality of food was nonexistent but by the second day, we figured out how to utilize the free bus shuttles available to campers which have schedules shuttling us to and from nearby grocery stores.  At one of the shopping centers, there was a couple of super cheap restaurant serving delicious breakfast! So while everyone was still sleeping at 7AM, we were showered and dressed and stuffing affordable goodness into our mouths.  By the time we get back to the campgrounds, the shower lines are endless but we were ready to start partying. It's all about strategic planning.

Festival grounds (Photo by Gurl in LA)

Outlet stations were available for electronic charging but beware of thieves, if you turn your back for even a second, your stuff will get stolen (I was one of the unfortunate victims).  Needless to say, I wasn't able to post or check in on my social media platforms as often as I wanted to. One of the coolest things I saw but did not participate in, was the silent dancing where everyone receives a set of headphones and dance to the music playing through it.  Everyone hears the same music but without the headphones, all you see are a bunch of people dancing around...to no music. Heineken had a little cooler tent where you can store your brew for FREE. The only downfall to that is, you can only take out two bottles/cans at a time which means walking to and from your campsite is a bit of an inconvenience.

You see it all at this no holes barred festival (Photo by Gurl in LA)

Each day of the festival, we planned out the the bands we wanted to see and mapped out our routes from stage and stage. The five stage festival was truly overwhelming but I think we did well.  Some stages were impossible to get to but some were easily accessible when arrived at the right time.  The highlights include:

- Snoop & Dr. Dre with Warren G, Whiz Khalifa, 50 Cent, Eminem, the tribute to Nate Dogg and the hologram performance of Tupac
- Kassabian
- Grouplove
- Zedd
- Ximena Sarinana
- The Hives
- Santigold
- Black Keys
- Childish Gambino
- Givers
- Morgan Page

Ok, that's a pretty extensive list but honestly, that's not even half the shows. We saw bands that we wanted to see and would never have known to like, so it's really a good experience.

The first time I fell in love with Grouplove (Photo by Gurl in LA)

Other than having to use the port-o-pottys and portable showers (which actually wasn't as bad as I thought), the car camping with tents is a must! You can't fully experience this unique festival without actually staying on festival campgrounds.  It really is a 24 hour party because even after the last show of the day, the party continues throughout the campgrounds with numerous fixtures of dance parties. We learned a lot from this experience from what to bring, what not to bring, and how to get the most out of the giant  extravaganza and we will definitely be well-prepared for next year's festivities.