Hey Babe! I went to my very first Coachella this year and I wanted to share some of the best tips I could give first timers. I read a lot of articles with advice and “Must-Do’s” before I went this year so I thought I’d add some of my own thoughts. Before I talk about some tips though, I just want to give you an overview of my favorite parts (and a few terrible ones).
FRIDAY
On Thursday my boyfriend and I started our trip to Indio with a flight to LAX. My best friend Fabi picked us up and we started the road trip out. We stayed in a house with a ton of other Instagrammers/fashion bloggers and it was so much fun! I met some amazing new people and caught up with some long time friends too. Thursday night was spent meeting people as they got to the house and settling in for the long weekend. Friday morning there wasn’t really a rush to get to the festival grounds so I had a great time just talking to people and getting ready. Fabi did my hair and we took the huge group picture of the 11 girls in the house! I had my iconic Coachella watermelon that day (only $5 considering everything is overpriced like crazy). It was also the coolest day temperature wise and really comfortable. My favorite sets were Empire of the Sun and Dillon Francis! We got home around 2AM and while most people slept in till about 11AM, I was up at 8AM the next morning. For some reason I don’t sleep much on vacation, probably because I’m so excited to start the next day.
Saturday was probably my favorite day! The morning was very similar to Friday, but instead of it only taking 10 minutes to get to the festival grounds, it took us an hour. I think the problem was that we tried to leave about two hours later than we did on Friday. When traffic gets bad, blockades get set up that prevent you from taking most turns that get you closer to the grounds. Every time our map told us to take a turn, we were stopped from doing so and it seemed as if we were always being directed in the opposite way! Besides that though, we had more time to walk around and explore the dinner options. My favorite set was DJ Snake! We tried to see Martin Garrix, but the Sahara tent is so terribly designed for large amounts of people that it was way too packed to be enjoyable. We finished the night at Lady Gaga and even though I don’t know a ton of her music, she performed some of her most popular songs so I still enjoyed her performance! Unfortunately we had the worst time leaving the parking lot this day. They disabled the traffic signal around the corner out of the lot and no one was able to leave the lot for at least an hour.
SUNDAY
Sunday was essentially a repeat of the other two days with relaxing mornings. We spent most of our time wandering from set to set and just enjoying the last little bit of Coachella. My favorite set was Galantis! I also tried Afters Ice Cream for the first time and it was amazing! We ended up leaving a little bit earlier because we were planning on getting up early to make it to LAX before too much traffic started up. We had a great time and it left me already wanting to go again next year!
Lastly, I have a few things that I think would make next year’s Coachella even better for myself and hopefully some will be helpful!
TIPS
DON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO FIND PEOPLE
On Friday I spent so much time trying to meet up with the other people in our house that I missed out on a lot of the music until pretty late in the evening. My best advice is to meet up with friends for a set. Pick a spot and time like "Under the Sahara stage sign at 5:30PM." It's really hard to get any service and a lot of times I didn't even know if my texts were going through at the right time. As a result, another tip that really helped me was sending a time stamp at the end of your text so if you are spontaneously trying to meet up they'll know when you asked such as "At blank stage, lmk if you're around sent at 3:30PM."
GET TO COACHELLA EARLY (AND LEAVE EARLY)
Not only will it prevent you from running into insane traffic, it'll also give you time to really experience Coachella. I was so caught up in taking pictures and meeting up with my friends that the only thing left I could focus on was the music. I didn't have enough time to peruse all the food vendors, visit the gift shop, or even check out the Arctic Tent / DoLaB! I also didn't hold the balloons because there was always a line, but there's always going to be a line and I really wish I had! Lastly, people say leave at least 30 minutes before the music ends and it's so worth it to avoid the traffic. Keep in mind performers do usually save their most popular songs until the last couple of minutes, so it's definitely a choice between the performance and traffic.
THINGS YOU DON'T NEED
1. I read so many articles about people saying that bandanas were ABSOLUTELY necessary to keep the dust away so I'm not sure if this year was just less dusty, but you really don't need one. If you're like me and don't want to carry it around or have it around your neck, wrist or arm then don't bother. The only time I could see people using it was during the walks to the lot (or maybe if you're camping).
2. Another thing I anticipated using more was a locker. I pre-paid for a locker to be able to put things away, but honestly a medium sized backpack carries everything you need. My biggest worry was that I was going to be really cold at night (because I get cold easily), but when you're standing in the crowd at sets, you really don't notice it. I would suggest bringing a sweatshirt to throw on during the walk back to the parking lot, but otherwise it wasn't a problem (I even brought jeans the first day just in case).
3. On the walk from the parking lots there are some bicycles with little booths/seats attached to offer you a ride. DON'T DO IT! They'll charge you anywhere from $20-$35 and can only take you to the next security checkpoint, which is usually right around the corner (maybe about 0.1) miles. If you don't mind spending the money and want a fun ride, go for it, just be warned they don't take you very far!
