My First Coachella
This spring, I attended my first ever music festival, right in the heart of sultry Indio — Coachella. While I was certain that there was no slower week than that of the preceding days leading up to the festival weekend, the intense buildup of excitement made my arrival that much sweeter. After pitching my tent and gulping down an ice-cold Gatorade on the famous Coachella campgrounds, it finally hit me: In a single space, I would finally get to see nearly all of my favorite artists perform live. It was as if the EDM gods had planned a synchronous gathering – Odesza, Illenium, Kygo, to name a few.
Entering the festival on Day 1 to Whethan blaring in the background, I was instantly met with a train of high-fives and subsequent “woo!”s. At this moment, I became overwhelmed with extreme emotion from all directions; it was hard to believe I was actually there. I found myself making my way to the endless row of over-priced food stands where I ordered my plate of chicken and waffles. Like Coachella, this was also a first. After eating, I began to explore all of the different stages and tents, from Sahara to Coachella to Mojave and Outdoor. I was excited to see a myriad of artists such as Børns, Vance Joy, HAIM, and The Weeknd, as well as discover some new faces.
Meandering the Coachella grounds felt absolutely freeing; my sense of time was simply gone. Being in this foreign environment gave me ample time to reflect, and I began to ask myself where I felt I belonged to the most. During this self reflection, I found a unique quality to Coachella – its immersive, yet detached nature. I came to the realization that it is a pure state of anonymity that provides me the most wonder and the least fear – a state that Coachella graciously offers. As the weekend went on, I was left more speechless than I was the previous day. Each day of Coachella had its own flair. The sun kissing my skin and my dress flowing softly in the wind, I was the lightest I had ever felt.
On the final day of the festival, I was finally able to see Odesza perform on the main stage. Even after seeing them live this past fall, I was still beyond excited to witness their sublime visuals and melodies. As a huge electronic music fan, I find that music like Odesza’s, even when non-lyrical, is deeply moving. Simplistic or heavily layered, the duo’s measures are successful in combining both somber and ecstatic elements. My favorite performances by Odesza were “Line of Sight” and “Late Night,” two of which come from their most recent album, A Moment Apart (2017). The audience’s hands swaying in unison throughout the set resembled to me that of a musical prayer. A rush of euphoria travelled throughout my body, joining the crowd around me to celebrate the divine vocals of Odesza’s featured singers.
Earlier that day, it came to my attention how popular bandanas were at Coachella. I assumed that they were simply part of the festival fashion. It was not until the day after my return home, when I found out I had contracted bronchitis, that I realized the bandanas were intended to keep out dust. Still, I braved the cough and did not regret my festival experience one bit. It’s one of my funnier Coachella memories.
As one of many who experiences music quite spiritually, Coachella stands as one of my most life-changing experiences and has left a deep imprint on me. I find Coachella to capture how music functions as a transformative tool in our daily lives, acting as a universal language that connects people of all kinds. Perhaps the most profound element of this trip were the people that I met along the way, some of whom were international. I had a great conversation with a visiting Australian, with whom I bonded over Flume, as well as a British person, where we talked about our previous travels and dreams while sharing double-stuffed oreos under the dark, dusty sky.
I like to compare Coachella to a geyser, for it encompasses the brevity and intensity of experience that leads to a new sense of self. Like a geyser’s ability to constantly replenish itself and erupt, Coachella attendees are all at once rebirthed upon entry, erupting in themselves the hot wonder and awe that music provides. I believe the Coachella experience cannot be replicated anywhere else. Days spent wandering in the desert have brought me closer to my true essence. A land of music and liberation, the metamorphosis one might undergo at Coachella is unmatched. My soul now sings a new song.
It seems as though Coachella is a sacred land of its own; perhaps a land so sacred that those who visit once long for their return home. As I reflect on my Coachella experience this past spring, a quote by Aldous Huxley continues to resonate with me, in which he states, “Music is the equivalent of some of man’s most significant and most inexpressible experiences. Listening to expressive music, we have, not of course the artist’s original experience, but the best experience in its kind of which our nature is capable — a better and completer experience than in fact we ever had before listening to the music.” Declaring music as the closest tool through which we attempt to communicate what is unseen but explicitly felt, Huxley’s words remind me of the transcendental nature that surrounds music.
A piece of me continues to reside in Indio’s infinite fields, and I hope to revisit Coachella in the future. Until I return, the geyser in me will continually rise and release as I experience the world around me with deeper intensity, lightness, and clarity.
