Coachella

[ch32am]

Anyone ever been to this festival? After the announcments of headliners so far, might be regretting my decision as a first-timer to have bought T tickets in advance... The line up for Coachella sounds right up my street!!

www.coachella.com

Alex.

[gr_1988]

Anyone ever been to this festival? After the announcments of headliners so far, might be regretting my decision as a first-timer to have bought T tickets in advance... The line up for Coachella sounds right up my street!!

www.coachella.com

Alex.

[ch32am]

Coachella looks awsum. wuld love to go. It's just the time of year it is held which is disappointing as I believe it is too early in the year to plan anything big due to exams etc. I ould prefer it if it was during June at least.

[BlackHole2006]

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to this festival,

This year I'm going to boston so there is a bit of a chance,

But boston is 12 hours away from where this place is held!

Cheers,

BlackHole2006

[chris!!]

yeah me and my gf went last year, fantastic festival! made it part of a holiday, starting off in LA we hired a car and chilled out for a few days then headed out to the desert for coachella.

nothing can prepare you for the heat and camping in it is tough but it was brilliant! After the festival we spent the next 2 weeks driving our way back up along the coast, finishing in San Francisco.

you know the saying, if carlsberg made holidays...they'd probably make that one! ^^^

I'd love to go back this year but cant afford it

Edited February 3, 2009 by chris!!

[xbox]

Whoop!

Fly to LA on Wednesday, overnight in Palm Springs then Coachella here I come!

[inspectedinspector]

Holy crap! Just read a review of The Cure's mamoth set, sounds awesome! 32 songs?! You can see it at NME.com Awesome! Anyone who went I'm waiting to hear about it

[fib_lover]

Holy crap! Just read a review of The Cure's mamoth set, sounds awesome! 32 songs?! You can see it at NME.com Awesome! Anyone who went I'm waiting to hear about it

[inspectedinspector]

Worst festival I've ever been to. Do your research if ya gonna go, it's like a concentration camp with regards the rules. Basically zero tolerance to booze and no re-entry to fest meaning no trips to campsite make for a lousy festival experience. $$$$$$$$. Avoid like the plague unless you are in recovery.

[krunchy]

Wow... that's pretty negative.

[inspectedinspector]

It is almost warranted. They sent a riot squad into the campsite with rubber bullets because a section of campers would not go to bed after 2am. There was a helicopter with loudspeakers threatening everyone. A bit hectic.

That being said, fun is what you make of it. And the fact that you can only drink overpriced beers in certain areas is fine, cause its 43 f**king degrees and you don't want to drink!

[fib_lover]

It is definitely warranted.

Do some research. Start with the Coachella Forums. I particularly enjoyed the Aussie guy's ironic "you americans rule!!!" thread

http://www.coachella.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Worst

Festival

Ever.

We didn't meet one person from the UK, Ireland, or the rest of Europe, or East Coast US, who anywhere near enjoyed the fest. We all ended up in the campsite getting hammered on smuggled in vodka(which was lucky as they sniffed alot of water bottles!! )to get over the shock of the oppression of it all.

[st00ka]

It is definitely warranted.

Do some research. Start with the Coachella Forums. I particularly enjoyed the Aussie guy's ironic "you americans rule!!!" thread

http://www.coachella.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Worst

Festival

Ever.

We didn't meet one person from the UK, Ireland, or the rest of Europe, or East Coast US, who anywhere near enjoyed the fest. We all ended up in the campsite getting hammered on smuggled in vodka(which was lucky as they sniffed alot of water bottles!! )to get over the shock of the oppression of it all.

Edited May 1, 2009 by st00ka

[Toilet Duck]

...to be honest, it's a fantastic festival, just not the same as the way we do things over this side of the pond. In 100 degree heat I really wasn't interested in drinking (I think I had 1 beer all weekend), and I didn't stay in the campsite since Beni cured me of any desire to sleep in an oven. If you go, treat as a 5 star event. We stayed in a great hotel in Palm Springs (hotel zoso) and drove in and out of the festival each day. The lineup is generally incredible and the sound is pristine. But it's really clinical, and if you go expecting the sort of experience you get at glasto for example then you'll leave very disappointed. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was the most sober I've ever been at a festival....saw loads of bands though!

[fib_lover]

...to be honest, it's a fantastic festival, just not the same as the way we do things over this side of the pond. In 100 degree heat I really wasn't interested in drinking (I think I had 1 beer all weekend), and I didn't stay in the campsite since Beni cured me of any desire to sleep in an oven. If you go, treat as a 5 star event. We stayed in a great hotel in Palm Springs (hotel zoso) and drove in and out of the festival each day. The lineup is generally incredible and the sound is pristine. But it's really clinical, and if you go expecting the sort of experience you get at glasto for example then you'll leave very disappointed. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was the most sober I've ever been at a festival....saw loads of bands though!

[st00ka]

...to be honest, it's a fantastic festival, just not the same as the way we do things over this side of the pond. In 100 degree heat I really wasn't interested in drinking (I think I had 1 beer all weekend), and I didn't stay in the campsite since Beni cured me of any desire to sleep in an oven. If you go, treat as a 5 star event. We stayed in a great hotel in Palm Springs (hotel zoso) and drove in and out of the festival each day. The lineup is generally incredible and the sound is pristine. But it's really clinical, and if you go expecting the sort of experience you get at glasto for example then you'll leave very disappointed. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was the most sober I've ever been at a festival....saw loads of bands though!

Edited May 2, 2009 by st00ka

[Toilet Duck]

You make a good case for it alright. In that, say if you were going with your loved one, and weren't drinking, fine. The drinking is the main issue for me though. It's pretty much a NON DRINKING festival. They don't make that clear enough for newcomers. All festivals claim for controlled drinking, but have a sensible attitude to it when you arrive, i.e. they trust the festival goer to control their inhibitions, freedom to express one's self. This one goes way OTT on it, and in my eyes, it is sickeningly all about the $$$$

If I had experienced a 5 star version of it that you had, I'd be agreeing. So basically, unless you are minted, and teetotal, don't come to our festival. They need to make that crystal clear. It's a festival for hipsters from LA and nothing more. You are misleading thousands of UKers by painting a pretty picture. Give the overall picture and you are presenting the truth. It's a con. Plain and simple. So why go to such a morally wrong fest when you can go to numerous ones much better, much closer to home? If I were in LA though with plenty of cash and the missus I'd definitely check it out.

Edited May 7, 2009 by Toilet Duck

[boarderwoozel3]

There are some wildly exaggerated accounts of this festival. Riot police enforcing curfew at 2am? Not quite. It was a large group of riled campers who were all excited after Rage Against The Machine's set in 2007 and were starting to become violent. To the police dispersed them without using force.

They don't let you bring alcohol into the campgrounds but if you've got a morsel of ingenuity in your body it's very easy to sneak past the light security. As a bonus, theft is virtually a non issue.

Musically it has an incredible lineup every year and is an extremely well run festival.

I would be careful letting a few negative people ruin your perception of this amazing event because they couldn't get loaded to their hearts content at every waking moment of the weekend. I've been the past three years and will return every year I can. It's guaranteed to be an amazing experience every time.

Edited June 8, 2009 by boarderwoozel3

[somabc]

I went and I thought it was a great festival! In the campsite it is very easy to smuggle in alcohol (or anything else) and there was nobody asking people to be quiet or go to bed. More's the pity due to the noise next to us at 6am!

Yes inside you can only drink in certain areas (near the bar) and yes the US Police are not to be messed with as this guy found out.

Edited June 9, 2009 by somabc

[Bort]

It's not really a drinking festival. It's a druggie festival, because the dance tent is a major part of it. Plus weed is practically legal in California, anyone that cares to spend a couple hundred bucks can go to a doctor, fake the necessary symptoms, and get a prescription card for it. It was Coachella that got Daft Punk to play live again, and DP spent all their Coachella paycheck building that pyramid, and the rest is history. Drinking too much in the desert is dangerous, anyway. But it's not impossible. $7 Heineken really sucks, yes. The beer gardens and noise curfews are put upon them by the city. No compliance, no permit. But it's incredibly easy to get booze inside the campsite. If you are driving, go to the In n Out burger or a supermarket and check out the parking lot: they are always full of kids carefully filling water bottles with vodka in the trunks of their cars. Try using an orange peeler to get the cap off without breaking the ring, or do it a day before and superglue the cap back on so the water bottles look sealed.

Speaking of curfews, McCartney broke the curfew by 45 minutes or so, and Prince broke it by 61, and the fine is $1000 a minute. But a drop in the bucket considering each of those acts cost over $2 million to book. Acts on the smaller stages get unplugged for breaking curfew because 1000 people at the Libertines or Art Brut won't riot, but 50,000 at Tool will. The city seems to be getting tired of broken noise curfews, hence The Cure being the first unplugged headliner.

Anyways, there's always amazing acts at Coachella, both big and small. They help make reunions happen, after all. And it's much smaller, with the capacity set at 60,000 a day, and obviously cleaner. No mud, plentiful showers, etc. I really wish Coachella had more after-hours stuff going on, like Shangri-la, Trash City, Arcadia, or even a silent disco, though. There was a dubstep dome this year for campers, but I stayed at a hotel this year for the first time. Coachella does artwork better than the other American festivals, but it's not on the same scale as things like the Shangri-la or Trash City. There is one big installation every year called the Do Lab, which offers shade in the form of gigantic flowers, leaves, etc, and there's a stage and misting there, too. Guess space and curfew issues make it impossible.

Edited August 18, 2009 by Bort

[rideincircles]

I went in 2007 and the post above me indicates a great deal about the festival. Me and my friends took an 8 day road trip to the Grand Canyon, Coachella and then LAs Vegas. It was the most fun I have ever had in a week and it was amazing. we drove 4000 (6400 km) miles across the country. One good thing about gas prices in the USA. California is the most expensive state, but its still 4 dollars (2 p2.5 pounds) or less for a gallon (4 liters). Road trips here are awesome, there is a lot to see.

Lots of the stuff was true as stated above. The main issue is to be prepared for the heat. Being from Texas I am used to the heat, but it was 107 degrees f (42 c) the day Rage played. I did not want to be anywhere near the front for that. Bjork on Friday was the worst crowd i have ever been a part of , it was so hot already and we got squished like sardines up front. Crowd surfing was the only way out for the poeple with heat exhaustion. I was so ungodly exhausted after Bjork it was ridiculous.

Alchohol at Coachella is for late night at the campgrounds, I had one beer all weekend and it was a heineken before Rage. It was probably the greatest heineken i have ever had though. Its just ridiculously hot for drinking during the day. I was just smoking most of the time when there, its not hard to find.

The Sahara tent is awesome with 360 sound and they turn on the lights at night. My main complaint on the tents are the sidewalls, some sets can spillover and its hard to see. The Coachela layout is awesome, not insanely huge but the place is filled with interesting stuff and the festival area is pristine green grass with a mountain backdrop and palm trees. Its very clean and California trendy. No ins and outs at the festival even for campers

The camping grounds suck to an extent, but they aren't terrible. Some things to note: they do have free showers which are totally necesary, we had really cool neighbors all around, poeple were playing futbol in the fields before they filled up, you could hear bjorks soundcheck the day before, it wasnt hard to sneak in alchohol and theft was a non issue.

One of the best things about it is how you can easily fly in and go camping. Preparation is necessary in the heat though, I would not go without a shade canopy because it gets really hot in the morning.

All in all, coachella is a blast and I want to go back, but I go to Bonnaroo every year because it has the freedom Coachella doesnt have. THats a whole other story though. Coachella is a blast plain and simple. Just prepare for what you are getting into. I.E. the heat, make it a part of your vacation if you go.

Edited August 27, 2009 by rideincircles