Coachella Diaries 2013 (Part 5 of 5) - Summary – “This Is The One”

From the 19th to 21st of April 2013, I attended the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, USA. This is part 5 in a series of 5 articles, summarising and reviewing the overall festival experience; from purchasing tickets to camping to the influence of art. All photos are my own.

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Looking back on the Coachella experience, it feels like a continuous tapestry, woven together with inspired touches of belonging and associating with the festival brand, from those tentative moments purchasing a ticket online in South Africa back in January to standing on that sacred Californian landscape in April.

Unboxing

Starting with the official souvenir box, which was distributed to all ticket holders in early March, the devil is in the details. It is primarily a vehicle for delivering the legendary wristband that ensures entry to the Empire Polo Club grounds, and the box succeeds in this regard, but it also immerses you in the quirky Coachella lore.

Inside, you'll find a mini calendar stand, as well as cardboard cut-out objects to make a Coachella diorama for your desk (if you so desire), as well as an extensive welcome guide to the festival, highlighting the fantastic features to be found and serving as a useful to-do list before and during the event.

To further immerse yourself in Coachella history, the eye-catching photo cards used for the calendar (which runs from April to April - a personalised move) feature past festival lineups.

Security And Authenticity

Aside from the online interface, the festival's first point of contact with attendees is means more than just DIY toys and desk ornaments. All of this branding contributes to two larger goals that should put both first-timers and five-time veterans at ease: security and authenticity.

The event wristband is a complex little beast, designed to keep scalpers at bay while also ensuring personalised service and interaction:

1. The first feature is a deceptively simple piece of plastic that functions as a type of finger trap, as organisers are well aware of the tricks used by sneaky festival-goers over the years to slip off wristbands and bracelets. Basically, once tightened, it cannot be undone.

2. The wristband's second feature is the RFID chip, which, when registered online, opens up a portal for attendees to connect with the Coachella community before the show. You can browse the extensive Frequently-Asked-Questions section, create a personalised line-up, plan your travel and lodging, and access the message boards for tips and advice.

This tech-savvy second functionality is also useful inside Coachella, where the strong influence of social media is accommodated by having dedicated check-in boards dotted around the grounds (such as on the boundaries of the stages and tents). Swiping your wristband at one of these automatically posts an update to your Facebook or Twitter account saying which stage you're at, so you don’t need to find the words while under the influence of…inexplicably great music.

Camping Trip

While the Hollywood elite may lounge around vacation homes and mansions in nearby Palm Springs over Coachella weekends, or snap up every hotel suite in the area, camping on-site is the best way to feel like you're a part of the festival.

According to Coachella Project Manager Justin Ferreira in the free Camp magazine distributed on-site, the number of campers has grown from a few hundred tents to thousands of cars, totalling more than 40 000 people in 2012.

Being right in the middle of the action 24 hours a day is clearly appealing to many, but how does one keep the logistics in order for such a large crowd without the situation devolving into chaos?

Carpoolchella

Coachella organisers strongly encourage carpooling, or sharing a car journey with other attendees to the festival, and what better way than through a competition?

Carpoolchella is an eye-catching lottery that primarily connects fellow festivalgoers, fosters community, and reduces traffic. Aside from flexing your creative muscles with your crew to decorate your car, the most rewarding aspect is the jaw-dropping lifetime VIP Coachella festival passes up for grabs.

Parking and camping coexist at Coachella, with specifically demarcated campsites organised into named and numbered "streets". After a long day, this kind of rigour proved extremely useful in finding one's way home through the neatly ordered but numerous rows.

The abundance of activities available in the campgrounds, such as yoga and Pilates classes, an art studio, and a silent disco, keep the dedicated campers entertained; to the point where Ferreira declared, "I'm convinced some people camp at Coachella just to play dodge ball."

The fiercely competitive team game pits friends and strangers against each other for glory or, on the odd occasion, the rights to a VIP shower. In the searing desert heat (where the mercury reached higher than 35 degrees Celsius), the little luxuries do matter.

There are a plethora of activities and services to be found in and around the campgrounds

Artchella

Artistic expression is a big part of Coachella's quirky constitution, and it was surprising to see how explicitly that is manifested, proving that the term isn't just for show.

The massive installation art pieces rose up all over the desert plains like statues, thematically linking the campgrounds and festival grounds with their humourous and inventive style, refusing to be confined to the festival's "art section".

Some of these pieces didn’t like to keep still. A giant snail named 'Helix Poeticus' snuck around the ground, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake for delighted followers, while a truly epic kite-like chain of balloons over 500 metres long required individual wranglers to monitor.

The majority, however, were of a more stationary nature, such as:

• the stately 'Mirage' (a mid-twentieth-century modernist retreat evoking the architectural style of Palms Springs houses of that era);

• ‘Recyclasaurus Rex’ (a terrifying 12-metre high sculpture made of recycled materials, ready "to chow down on every bottle, can, and gate-jumper he can find," according to the official festival guide); and

• the amusing 'Coachella Power Station' (manned by wacky hippo-suited scientists who perform a series of checks and experiments day and night, providing a 'inside look' into how the Coachella engine is kept running).

With over 300 artists initially submitting proposals for these stunningly original installations, Coachella’s creative spirit can be found onstage and amongst the crowds.

You're Welcome

You're likely to encounter that welcoming atmosphere throughout the weekend (not to be confused with sunstroke - stay hydrated, kids).

The festival is an all-ages event, so it's not surprising to see some children and teenagers roaming the grounds, but access to the designated beer gardens is suitably strict, with various ID checkpoints providing you with an additional '21-and-over' wristband.

A quick stop at the merchandise tent and its neighbour, Zia Records, in between sets is also on the checklist for music fans looking to spend further dollars in devotion. If you're not satisfied with just buying your favourite band's t-shirt, there's a wide array of vinyl records for sale. If you time it right, your wildest dreams may true when the artist themselves signs it for you.

Evolving Tradition

It takes time to establish a tradition, and prominence is frequently associated with that process. Coachella has become, and will most likely remain, a way of life for a lot of people raised on its performances (as seen in Camp magazine's 'Coachooser' section, where a 10-year-old interviewee proudly stated that he has attended the festival a whopping seven times thus far).

This transformation from a relatively underground vibe to a global mega-event occurred through careful cultural cultivation and market savvy, gradually and steadily attracting a rainbow of music fans from all walks of life.

Diversifying hasn’t diluted the Coachella experience; it has enriched the event with an array of perspectives, and as utopian as it may sound, if you arrive bearing peace, love and a legitimate wristband, there should be a place for you under the Coachella Valley's palm trees.

So if you’re looking for a musical oasis in the desert, this is the one.

There's a place for everybody under the palm trees of Coachella

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