Coachella

This past weekend, a friend and I participated in a 3-day music festival called Coachella. It was held in the Coachella Valley, which is in the desert about 10 miles east of Palm Springs, where the temperature was above 97 degrees all three days. It was held in a large polo field with 4 different stages set up with bands all day and into the night. You can check out the line up we heard here under the event info tab.

We left after work on Friday and when we arrived in the desert we decided it was too late to try to make it to the last performance of the night so we just relaxed and planned out our next day. We got up around 10 am on Saturday and went to breakfast at IHOP. It had been forever since I had been to an IHOP. I was not impressed with the biscuits and gravy, they were not as good as mom's.

Since we had some time to kill before we headed to the heat of the desert so we decided to do a little bit of gambling at the casino nearby. I played poker for about 45 minutes before I lost $60 on the river to a guy playing with a weak Ace to my Kings. I then taught my friend the art of gambling on the penny slots. We then headed to the 101 degree heat of the day out to the festival.

The headliner for Saturday night was Prince!! I have waited for a long time to see him in concert and it was well worth the wait through the heat of the day to get to his concert. He went on at 11pm and was supposed to end at midnight (when the festival ends each night) but he kept coming back and told the audience that he didn't want to stop - so he performed until just after 1am. He played some of his classic hits as well as a great rendition of the Beatles' "Come Together" and ended the night with "Purple Rain". It was a great concert!!!

Throughout the festival we did hear a lot of really good bands and some not so good bands. Death Cab for Cutie, Cold War Kids, Dwight Yoakam, Electric Touch, and the Shout Out Louds were some of the bands I liked the best. There were also a lot of art pieces scattered throughout the field such as Tesla coils (pictured below), interactive music art, the big rig jig (pictured below) and something called the Do-Lab where they played rave music and sprayed people with lots of water.

Overall, we were able to stay cool by heading into the shade or one of the air-conditioned tents throughout the field and we made sure to stay hydrated with plenty of water as well as stay protected from the sun with lots of sunscreen. It was a great weekend and I am sure I will be going again next year!!