A lot of you were surprised to find out that this was my very first time at Coachella. I’ll admit that I was extremely nervous about attending because I got a ton of mixed reviews from friends about the festival
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After experiencing Coachella for my self last weekend, I also have such mixed feelings. I LOVE the fashion + music aspect, but the price of the tickets + the dusty/dry/hot weather + the quality of the bands + $12 for 5oz of wine + sky high prices for mediocre food doesn’t tickle my pickle. Despite the magical photos posted on IG making Coachella out to be the best thing since sliced bread, I’m going to be really honest here about what you get when you head out to Indio for this festival.
CHOOSE THE SHUTTLE PASS NOT THE PARKING PASS
Let’s start with parking. This was probably the most well organized part of Coachella. I was so impressed. We purchased the Shuttle Pass for $80/person and chose to park at the Tennis Gardens. There is TONS of parking at this place and the shuttle is so close to where you’re able to park your car. Shuttles come every 15 minutes so we didn’t have to wait long at all. It is about a 15 minute ride to the festival, and the drivers are all so nice. Also, the tennis garden shuttle parks very close to the Coachella entrance which is so nice because a lot of the other shuttle locations have to park quite far from the entrance causing unnecessary waking.
ARRIVE LATER IN THE DAY
We made the rookie mistake of arriving at one pm which was the hottest part of the day, and the place was a ghost town. We were surprised that there weren’t many people there, but also exited because we were able to take lots of great photos without too many people in the background. That's really the only perk of arriving early. Next year, we plan to arrive at 5 or 6pm to avoid the suffocating heat + dust. We noticed that most people start arriving around 6pm for sunset photos and the better bands go on later in the evening. Unless there is a band you are OBSESSED with preforming before 6pm, do NOT arrive early and spend the day at Coachella.
BE PREPARED FOF NOSE BLEEDS AND ALLERGIES FROM THE DUST
The main thing that made Coachella a huge struggle was how HOT and windy it was. The wind caused the dust to kick up and made it hard to breathe. I actually started choking and coughing constantly despite wearing a scarf over my face. It also caused me to get nose bleeds and flared up my allergies which caused my contacts to dry out and my eyes became extremely itchy. I have been coughing up the dust for about 3 days and have had headaches + sniffles + residual nose bleeds all week. Make sure you have some Benadryl in the house, you’ll need it! An inhaler wouldn’t hurt either.
TO AVOID GETTING SICK AND BEING MISERABLE
- for eyes, bring: eye drops, contact solution
- for health, bring: medical grade face mask, tissues, wet wipes, and Advil
- for body, bring: spray moisturizer, liquid sunscreen *spray is banned*
- take out your contacts out and switch to glasses at night to block the dust
The “Coachella cold” is a real thing, so take every precaution you would usually take to avoid getting sick. I also recommend not refilling bottles out of the faucets because there was a major herpes breakout this year and I am pretty sure it spread through the public water filling stations. Pay the $2 per bottle.
If you have not ever been to Coachella, I don’t want this article to deter you from going. However, these are the realities of attending a massive music festival. Despite these things, I still plan to go next year because I did make some amazing memories dancing under the desert stars with my man to my favorite bands while enjoying some overpriced kombutcha.
