Coachella 2013

What is there to say about this little adventure - Amazing!

GETTING THERE
It all started on Thursday the 18th of April with a dash to the airport from work and a cocktail in the bar near the gate. After an excited drink and a quick snack shoveled down by Az, we checked the flight status and how unusual for American Airlines, it was delayed for a few hours. So after a couple more drinks and a growing fear about finding this little place in the desert of California called Coachella in the dark, we left from DFW for Ontario, California.

I can't remember what time we arrived but we were thankful to find the car rental place still open, picked up our little car and went in search of a Home Depot, (America's version of Bunnings) as we needed an Eski. Unlike many festivals in Australia, you could take your own drinks into the camping area, happy days!

Thanks to the invention of Smart phones we found Home Depot (how did we survive in the past), 5mins before it shut, and ran in to search for an Eski. Az being the intelligent one out of the two of us, as his head is bigger, asked where he would find an Eski. After a dumbfounded look from the shop assistant he tried every other word he knew from around the world to describe this product finishing up with "cool box, to keep drinks cold". At this point the American man appeared to become enlightened and quickly ushered Az towards the "Toolboxes" section, so close. Wow the differences in the English language! I am surprised by the number of times people cannot understand what we are saying, even though we are speaking the same language. Giving up on our Eski plan, we started to use logic and look around ourselves eventually finding a polystyrene Eski that the man called a "Chill Chest".

Next we had a pretty good 90 min drive in the dark and strong wind through the winding hills of the desert to

Coachella. It was a bit ire as we could not see anything outside beyond the light given off by the headlights and for a long of road section there was an unusual humming noise, which we found out on the way back was a huge wind farm. Upon arrival, around 11:30pm we were tired, Ez was ready for sleep, so luckily we avoided the masses in general camping. Thankfully we purchased VIP tickets (if you ever go I recommend paying the extra), which got us our own entry and car park with a short walk to our Tee-pee that included camping gear. Due to its prime location we got Tee-pee number 69, rolled out our sleeping bags which we got to keep, Ez went to bed and Az went for a wander around to check out the place.

We had a view of the stars :)

69 - our home for the next 4 nights

Art - next to a raging dance party!

DAY 1 - Blur, Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Modest Mouse

Day one started after a freezing nights sleep in the fetal position to keep warm, and being afraid to shift in the sleeping bag for fear of a cold spot. Apparently it was an unusual cold snap! This was soon forgotten as we awoke to a warming sun and beautiful view of the blue sky from the opening in the top of the Tee-pee, followed by this view out the entrance. Stepping out into the warm sun, seeing the Tee-pee village, Lake Eldorado and the mountains surrounding the Coachella Valley brought a smile to our faces. The only thing we now needed was some food in the stomach from the festivals local farmers market and then a trip into town for supplies to get the party started!

You remembered how I said you can take drinks into the camping area, there is one rule, they have to be in plastic bottles. In preparation for this I emptied a water bottle, put on a back pack and headed on the bus into the local bottle shop and supermarket. Full of barely clothed people all after supplies, we made our way through the masses in search of snacks and beverages. We found the basics needed to sustain life for the next few days, but the surprise came when we went to get some alcohol. We could buy any kind of alcohol you could possibly think of in plastic bottles, huge plastic bottles, 2.2L of whisky, vodka, gin, whatever you wanted could be purchased in PLASTIC and super cheap. 2.2L of Canadian Club $15.00! So after Az finally made a decision as there was so much whisky (Ez scored a 12 pack of pale ale for $6), and we packed our bags and headed back on the bus to start our weekend.

After a few drinks and some lunch we headed in to the festival site, about a mile or so walk to the gates. We arrived to find a massive lineup. So decided (as Az is unable to wait in any sort of que [especially traffic] for longer than 60 secs) that we would chill at the lake a little longer and then head in. When we finally did enter the gates we made our way around all the stages getting a feel for our surroundings. We ended up in the Rose Garden, one of the VIP areas. The Rose Garden was very pretty, a little background info the festival is set on a polo field grounds, so as you can imagine certain areas are pretty fancy, we found ourselves a couch in the shade, two yummy cocktails and sat back to enjoy the atmosphere, the tunes and the heat...

Coachella Fashion, the minimalist approach!

Well the rest of the afternoon was pretty much the same. We settled into the VIP area next to the main-stage. This was great as we had plenty of room, shade from the 35 degree sun (there is none outside the VIP areas), clean toilets and no cues to buy drinks, food or charge phones. The people watching, music and atmosphere was great. Our afternoon consisted of  Metric, Of Monsters and Men, Passion Pit, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grinderman and Blur just before bed.

Mechanical Snail that moved
around the festival, it will
feature in a few pictures

DJ Set next to the rose garden

Heading in for the DJ set

DAY 2 - Phoenix, The XX, The Postal Service and Hot Chip

Day 2 started with the same great view and Az was fascinated with how they assembled the Tee-pee and tied the bamboo together at the top. Was someone simply up a ladder supporting and tying it at the top whilst others placed the bamboo? hmm

Well it was another cool morning but no where near as cold, we checked out some of the local art and again tried for a healthy breakfast. Festival food prices are a little steep but the food was nice. After a wander around we went back to the comfort of Lake
Eldorado to use the clean toilets, take a shower without any ques and prepare for the afternoon.

Ez cracked an early beer, Az being a bit soft was waiting until lunch time and we sat under a tree next to the lake Az reading a book and Ez working on a grant!!!! The sun was shining, the lake glistening and it was pretty quiet in the festival with most people recovering from the previous night

After a little while a group started to gather outside the Tee-pee near us, there was a crazy English couple from the rough end of Liverpool, 2 older men who where apparently married to women, out for a boys trip to their 11th Coachella and a spattering of others. They invited us to join, offered us some drinks and snacks which we accepted and a joint which we happily declined, as did the English couple who only used "class A drugs, readily available from the van in camping location 1055!" They poured me the biggest whisky I have ever seen, conversations flowed,  laughs were had and after a couple of hours and one very large drink Az was tipsy and ready to go into the festival for the afternoon and evening.

As previously mentioned it was about a mile walk to get in. There had been allot of traffic on the paths in the

Yum, cold watermelon on a hot day 

previous 24 hours and air had started to develop into a dust cloud. Sunglasses were needed and people started using whatever clothing they had to cover their mouths and nose, it was not pleasant and only got worse over the coming days. Once we made it inside the gates the dusk subsided a bit and we made out way to the rose garden again for some cocktails. This is where we started to "get lucky"...

Sitting back we were joined by an older French woman called Jacqueline ( a little mature for a festival) and some of her friends and family.  She was a lovely lady, very chatty (as was Az at this stage) so I asked if they would like a drink as they were admiring our cocktails. Upon returning we again resumed chatting and I asked the question "what has brought you to this festival?" From this point we were captivated, she was the mother of Paul who is one of the creators behind Daft Punk. She informed us how they were just about to release a new song, that they knocked back $8million to release it at Coachella, so that they could release it in a little place in Australia called Wee Waa, NSW. She tried to play it for us but her I phone was not cooperating, so instead she gave us her number and said to drop into her place at Newport Beach on our way home for morning tea. After parting ways she went back stage and we went to the main stage for the afternoon.

Snail rocking out blocking our view

We drunk some more, ate some more and again listened to some great bands such as the Violent Femmes,
Cafe Tacvba, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, The XX and Phoenix. Life was good, could it get any better? Oh Yes it can!!!

Whilst listening to Hot Chip, Ez made an astonishing discovery. Jessica Alba and her entourage were walking behind us. Dumbfounded Az's eagle eyes pivoted in her direction and his jaw dropped as he tried to verify the discovery. It was not until the man next to us suggested that Az close his mouth and said yes that was Jessica Alba that we returned to the music and moved on from our brush with Hollywood. A great day finished off by awesome sets by The XX and Phoenix :)

TBC with Part II.... stay tuned

Re energize