Coachella

[Spindles]

Quality post punkrawkjoe, thanks

The idea of basically camping in a big car park always seemed strange to me. It's all laid out in avenues or blocks as well, right?

Edited April 10, 2015 by Spindles

[bennyboi]

I apologize in advance for the essay, but having been to Glastonbury twice now, and Coachella 4 times, here's my take:

It quite simply does not. Other than the lineup, anyway. There's quite a bit of overlap there, but mostly Pyramid/Other/Park/JP type of acts. They don't really book West Holts type of acts. And certainly nothing you'd see in the Circus/CabaretPoetry/Greenfields/etc. Not being all that up on electronic music, I can't fully speak on that, but I know it's pretty big at Coachella, especially in the tents at night. Not late at night, mind you, because EVERYTHING shuts down by about 1, maybe 2am. There may be a few electronic acts finishing up after the headliners are done, but that's it. At that point, you leave the festival grounds and walk back to the camping area, which is essentially a giant parking lot (sorry, car park), where you have a 10x12 ft space in which to fit your car and your tent. There are a few "art installations", a silent disco, and a roller rink set up in the camping area, but again, all of this shuts down shortly after the headliners finish. There is nothing to do at night, except party in your campsite, with whatever beer you brought. You walk by a lot of campsites having their own "parties" and a few of them are friendly enough to invite passers by to join, but there no real community spirit, just a lot of hipsters/bros/basic chicks (for lack of a better term) walking by yelling COOOOCHELLLLLAAAAA!

That said, I've only ever camped at Coachella. A lot of people stay in hotels or rent houses/condos and take the tram to and from the festival. From what I've heard, it's easy to be lazy, wake up late, and spend the day poolside to beat the heat, not getting into the festival until 4 or 5 in the evening. I've heard there are a lot of sponsored after parties where secret sets can happen, like when Thom Yorke showed up and played a DJ set a few years ago. But again, having never done Coachella that way, I can't say too much about it.

As far as inside the festival, as I said, it's no comparison. Getting in is similar, I suppose, as when the gates open, you wait in a line similar to when the gates open at Glastonbury, which can take well over an hour, as they thoroughly search you on the way in. The problem with this (aside from the music starting when the gates open, so you often miss the reason you were trying to get in early, anyway), is that it's often 90 degrees + (F) and nobody has water, because you can't bring it in and I've seen more than one person pass out from heat exhaustion while waiting to get in, on more than one occasion. As mentioned above, there are beer gardens. So IF you're over 21, you go to an ID check, and get a wristband that gets you into the beer gardens, where you can buy $8 Heineken, Heineken light, or surprisingly, Strongbow. I believe there are some mixed drinks sold, but they are even more ridiculously expensive. They place the beer gardens so that you can see/hear the main stages, but you are quite a ways away, and the one that faces the second stage has ridiculous sound bleed from the main stage. That's actually a problem all over the site, which is as mentioned above, quite small.

Last but not least, the other huge difference is that there is nothing to do there but watch music. Arguably, that's why you're there, but the ability to wander around Glastonbury and stumble upon all sorts of not musical entertainment is a big part of what makes it so special. So at Coachella, if you've got a big gap in your schedule, you can check out the few "art installations" they have on site, take a ride on the ferris wheel, or use that time to make the hour walk back to your tent for warm clothes/food/booze.

Anyway, I think that more or less covers my observations. Long story short, they share some bands and not much else.

It was good to hear it from the horses mouth. Still the line up always look pretty incredible but I think I'd get bored there. Edited April 10, 2015 by bennyboi

[WS_Jack_III]

8 Dollars for a drink is like £5.50 so it's a quid up on Glasto drink wise then.

[bennyboi]

Could you seriously not get ANYTHING in?

No one smoking Doobs on site or even swigging a hip flask?

No chance of buying a balloon in there then.

[Spindles]

50p up this year, I'd warrant.

[WS_Jack_III]

50p up this year, I'd warrant.

is that a guess?

[Spindles]

Totally, I have no insight whatsoever, just the expectation that prices always go up.

[punkrawkjoe]

Quality post punkrawkjoe, thanks

The idea of basically camping in a big car park always seemed strange to me. It's all laid out in avenues or blocks as well, right?

Cheers. No problem.

It has it's pro's and cons. It's nice to have everything readily available, and to be able to lock up your valuables (I don't think they have anything like the lock ups), but it sucks when people are running their cars to charge their phones and you have to listen to their engine noise and breathe the exhaust fumes. Exactly. There are several camping fields, and they're all laid out with numbered avenues so that you can find your space, and there are two rows of spaces between each avenue, so you have somebody parked/camped on three sides of you.

[punkrawkjoe]

Could you seriously not get ANYTHING in?

No one smoking Doobs on site or even swigging a hip flask?

No chance of buying a balloon in there then.

Oh, you can and people do. There are plenty of people smoking weed around, and I've never actually seen someone busted for it inside the site. I'm sure there are plenty of more illicit substances around as well, but you won't easily find them for sale.

Funny story about sneaking booze in. A few years ago, when Blur and the Stone Roses co-headlined, we literally walked to the very front for Blur, with no trouble at all, as the crowd was so sparse. It was insane. We were no more than 10-15 meters from the stage. Most Americans only know Song 2, so nobody cared to see them (admittedly, that was all I knew before I met my girlfriend who is British, and the reason that I've made it to Glasto). Anyway, while up there, a guy was swigging on a plastic water bottle of some kind of booze and told us that it was "crotch vodka" and that he had smuggled in, wrapped in a plastic bag as a courtesy to his friends, in the crotch of his pants (trousers.. I think). I was inspired and the tactic has worked for me every time I tried it after that.

Edited April 10, 2015 by punkrawkjoe

[monkey1989]

the lineup looks a bit weak this year I think they must have paid a lot for acdc ( I love acdc mind)

[thewayiam]

It was good to hear it from the horses mouth. Still the line up always look pretty incredible but I think I'd get bored there.

You wouldn't get bored there generally but imo the lineup is a bit shit this year. Don't take too much notice of the whole drink thing, there is a Californian law in place that is part of it as far as I know and it can get so hot it's a case of one beer=a bottle of water to stay hydrated, I'll admit 7pm onwards it'd be nice to walk around with a drink. While it doesn't compare to Glasto, the weather is the best you will get and it's possibly the most organized fest I've been to.

I don't see it as the American V Fest at all, look at Lollapalooza for that, Coachella is far from chav infested and as for the social media side, every bloody festival has that now.

Edited April 11, 2015 by thewayiam

[WS_Jack_III]

Watching Alabama Shakes right now. I like them live, seen them twice before but i strangely i find myself switch off when i listen to their debut record.

also they didn't play "Hold On" so i investigated and they've only played it once this year. Odd, must be sick of their most popular song already.

Edited April 11, 2015 by III

[WS_Jack_III]

I've never been to Coachella but this very funny video tells me all I need to know.

Great line up but from what I've heard of the atmosphere, its pretty pi** poor.

I feel like we should do this to people at Glastonbury and see what results we get.

[tevaburger]

Imagine Glastonbury's lineup attended by the people who go to creamfields and v festival.

you haven't a clue. vfest and coachella as being similar in terms of the people attending? i've seen you get ribbed on here by those who wonder why you feel impelled to comment and sound authoritative on anything, and I've held back so far, but this is just ridiculous that you can compare the most 'clean' comfortable festival that is attended by mostly well-off americans (coachella) to the lout-heavy piss throwing mess that is V Fest. I am quite anti-Coachella, but not for reasons that it's like V Festival.

[tevaburger]

bonnarooo is a bit better...at least you can buy pints and walk to the stages with drink in hand...but it's the same thing as coachella where you enter an 'arena' of stages and afterwards it's back to a mega carpark (everyone basically drives to the fest) serving as after-hours. plus, the stages being all so near means sound bleeds, and these 'tents/sheds' are just horrible as you really can't see much regardless of where you are, while you hear the sound from other stages nearby.

nothing compares to Glasto. don't go to america trying to find something better or similar. the legal climate here prevents that.

Wilco's Solid Sound Festival is a cracker of a weekend festival if you like Wilco. I'm doing that this year as my own one-year break from Glasto. That's unless I miracle myself some Dead tiks for California for same weekend. Bon Iver and The National are curating a festival in Wisconsin too. these smaller ones are where the Americans can do well, not in doing poor copies of Glasto where they copy 'Silent Discos' and the lot.

[DJL]

Funny story about sneaking booze in. A few years ago, when Blur and the Stone Roses co-headlined, we literally walked to the very front for Blur, with no trouble at all, as the crowd was so sparse. It was insane. We were no more than 10-15 meters from the stage. Most Americans only know Song 2, so nobody cared to see them (admittedly, that was all I knew before I met my girlfriend who is British, and the reason that I've made it to Glasto). Anyway, while up there, a guy was swigging on a plastic water bottle of some kind of booze and told us that it was "crotch vodka" and that he had smuggled

in, wrapped in a plastic bag as a courtesy to his friends, in the crotch of his pants (trousers.. I think). I was inspired and

the tactic has worked for me every time I tried it after that.

I got caught doing that at Optimus Alive in Portugal. It soon become clear the pat downs were only looking for, i don't know concealed weapons and the like... so they guy was comletely confused when he found a (little too large to actually conceal well) bottle of what appeared to be water down my pants.

[DJL]

It's wrong to judge a country's festivals by one or two (i hope no one judges us by V) but generally the notion of rules worries me at US fests. I was reading on the Jazz fest forum a discussion on whether you can get away with dancing in the blues tent without stewards asking you to leave?! Can you imagine that at glastonbury?!

[Badlands]

Teva, have you been to V?

[Funkyfairy!]

you haven't a clue. vfest and coachella as being similar in terms of the people attending? i've seen you get ribbed on here by those who wonder why you feel impelled to comment and sound authoritative on anything, and I've held back so far, but this is just ridiculous that you can compare the most 'clean' comfortable festival that is attended by mostly well-off americans (coachella) to the lout-heavy piss throwing mess that is V Fest. I am quite anti-Coachella, but not for reasons that it's like V Festival.

Thanks for that sweeping generalisation , I'm not a lout, and would never thrown mine or anyone elses urine or other bodily fluids

But I have been to V on many occasions, yes by choice . I adore Glastonbury, it's wonderland for adults and feels like home etc etc but V is always a good weekend , my one weekend a year going back home to spend with friends who would never go to G, who would find Glastonbury too intimidating, who love popular music and we always have a fun weekend,

V has its place in my calendar and despite the festival snobbery that exists there are many different festivals that fit different peoples lifestyle. Personally I wouldn't like to go to wilderness or reading but that doesn't make them bad... Just not for me.

[Glastonlocal]

this sums it up for me.

[spursfan77]

Went to coachella in 2012 and it is excellent. I thought the drinking rules would annoy me but it really didn't. It was so hot any beer I drank didn't have much effect. their drug policies seemed pretty relaxed as well from what I saw.

It's not really comparable to Glastonbury. It's very different.

I really like Glastonbury but coachella is special too. Glastonbury probably shades it 60:40

[rikkirascal]

Coachella seems like my worst nightmare. Looks like it's full of c**** too.

[russycarps]

I've never been to Coachella but this very funny video tells me all I need to know.

https://youtu.be/W_IzYUJANfk

Great line up but from what I've heard of the atmosphere, its pretty pi** poor.

I bet you could easily make the same video with some of the airhead Glastonbury goers. There are tens of thousands who look exactly like them, and are equally vacuous, let's not kid ourselves.

Edited April 11, 2015 by russycarps

[Mr November]

this sums it up for me.

"A huge concert, goes over two weekends...with over 60 bands playing"

Sounds massive.

Agree you'd get the same result interviewing select Glastonbury attendees though.

[Divein]

Especially if you asked them questions about real bands that were playing and then clearly dubbed over questions about fake bands to make the interviewee look stupid.

Can't believe people think that's real