Instagramers playground, the Coachella music festival! Coachella has always been right in my own backyard and it took me 4 years living in Arizona and 2 years living in California later to finally make it. Coachella is famous and people travel from all over the world to come. Known for celebrities, fun art work, and world class DJs. What can you expect at Coachella?

What you need to know

Prices

Going to get this one over with first, Coachella is expensive. It cost $510 for the ticket alone and add on $120 on top of that for camping for the weekend. Luckily, I am in driving distance so it’s only gas money but if you had to fly it could easily be a grand just in upfront expense.

We brought our own food and drinks to the campsite and almost exclusively ate and drank here. Beer is $12 and a small plate of food is a whopping $15 inside the festival. If you didn’t plan ahead like us, this gets expensive. Ice also started out at $10 and made its way up to $15 for one bag by the end of the weekend. There is a general store if you forget any of the supplies.

Camping experience

Camping was my favorite part of the entire experience!! I absolutely love being 10ft away from all my friends and waking up with everyone together and ready to play some beer games! I was the cornhole champ for the weekend 🙂 It is definitely something I encourage you to do BUT getting to and from camping was downright awful. I kind of went off on a rant so you can read more about the experience of camping here.

The weather

It gets really hot!!! It is the desert after all. After living in Arizona this wasn’t a shock to me. We got a pretty mild weekend with temperatures in the mid 80s to low 90s. For much of the world that is pretty hot. Especially during the heat of the day you can start to feel the heat get to you. Wear sunscreen and drink lots of water. Butttttt as soon as the sun goes down, as it is the desert, it is cold!! For the most part in the festival there are enough people around you stay warm, but for walking around you may want a light jacket.

It also gets really dusty just by the end of Weekend 1. I imagine Weekend 2 is even worse. Many people choose to bring something to block their face.

The festival

The festival itself has a lot of cool things! Get there early on the first day when it’s relatively empty just to explore the grounds. The Ferris wheel was fun and gave a great view of the grounds! I just missed the fireworks by 5mins when I did the Ferris wheel! There is also a ton of artwork that is fun to strike a pose in front of. The artwork is what makes this an instagramers playground as it seems every year, girls post the same pictures in front of the art or the Ferris wheel. There was also a big igloo with a 10 minute video that was a good break from the heat of the day as it has AC.

The music

To be honest, I’m not huge into the music. I have a lot of friends that were stoked to see a few artists but I was more there for the experience! I saw Childish Gambino, Rufus du Sol, DJ Snake, Diplo, Arizona, Bassnectar, Kid Cudi, Gryffin, Kahlid, Zedd, Dillion Francis, etc. At least from what I can remember, they all kind of blend together by the end! They each play for about an hour so a pretty quick set then you go to the next artist. The stages and light shows were pretty amazing! Whether you are going to Coachella for the music or just for the experience, Coachella will not disappoint! There is no doubt that the biggest artists and DJs all come together every year to Coachella.

The crowds

The bad of the festival is it gets sooooo crowded. Literally if you are not holding on to you friends hand, they could be walking right in front of you and one person cuts you off and you have lost your friend in a sea of people. Oh and good luck meeting back up because you have no service inside the festival at night. The best thing to do is set a meeting spot.

Oh and let me tell you about the bathrooms and water lines! Bathroom lines were SO long. The line went back must have been 50 people. My advice? Cut it….once you get inside the bathroom and get through the line outside, it splits into two lines and no one even goes to the back line. It is so easy to go in the bathroom pretending to wash your hands and then go to the back line where no one even realizes your cutting. Not your cup of tea? Well neither is peeing my pants in an hour line lol.

Water lines…well the good is that Coachella has free water and with how hot it is I honestly would have spent hundreds alone on water if it weren’t for my camelback and free water refill. At the same time, plan for a half hour and set a meet up point for filling water.

The people

Also expect to see lots of partygoers. I mean at noon people passed out on the grass drunk or getting carried out of a concert. It’s an interesting place where there seems to be no rules! Security was a joke and didn’t even check if our water was actually water or something else coming in which is surprising because most other festivals I’ve been to have a pat down and intense security check. Add in all of the unique, interesting, cute, or downright weird outfits, and there is no shortage of people watching!!

Would I go back?

No I won’t. It was a lot of fun and I’m so glad I went but Coachella for me is definitely one of those go once kind of places to say I went. It was a great weekend and the highlight for me was hanging out with my friends, playing beer games in the campground, and listening to good music. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Other people certainly feel differently than me and go to Coachella every single year and never get tired of it though so to each their own!

To be completely honest, all I wanted to do the weekend after was go actual camping and get away from it all. It’s a lot of partying and a LOT of people. It can be overwhelming. Just be safe and don’t be one of those people getting themselves into trouble. I also was sick for like 3 weeks after this along with most of my friends. I’m sure a combination of sharing drinks, not sleeping, and drinking for 4 days straight. Combine this with the hassle of getting too and from and I can happily say I did it but will not go back!

My recommendation to you would be to go once for sure and experience it! Go as young as you can so you still have the stamina to deal with the crowds and partying. Then you can make the decision for yourself if you would go again 🙂