Coachella Recap 2018

This year’s Coachella Recap 2018… In case you’re looking for a guide of “how to do Coachella,” I’m going to leave a link for last year’s post here 🙂

Oh my goooooooodness gracious, Coachella how are you already over?! I feel like it was just yesterday I came home from last year, already bursting with excitement to buy my tickets for round two… ahh, and the cycle continues…

I wrote a recap last year sharing my experience as a first timer at one of the world’s most notorious music festivals, and it’s crazy to think how different it was this time around. I kind of had a feeling that would be the case; it is a highly unique experience, with a whole set of varying factors to cater to (the extreme desert heat in the day, the chilly nighttime temps, the approximately 10 miles of walking you’ll do each day, even just taking a god damn good picture.) There were aspects I ended up being disappointed over last year— mainly regrets over certain shows I saw or didn’t see, or things outfit or photo related, haha— so I had a pretty solid game plan for this year. It made a huge difference knowing exactly what to expect going in this time (even just the realization that short boots would be just as comfy as sneakers was a big one haha).

My main rule for myself, was that no matter what, I was going to see every single artist on my *must see* list. That was the priority, and I hoped that everything else would just fall into place and work itself out. And ugh, I feel SO annoying for even saying this, but… this weekend was just so. fucking. special. I saw everyone I wanted to see, I got to see all the art installations, I tried a whole bunch of the fun food they have, managed to finaaaally take some quality ‘chella photos (more on that later) and really just made the most out of every day. Like, I’m literally tearing up thinking about how grateful I feel to have been in such a magical place, getting to see without a doubt the most moving and impactful performances I have ever seen, with my sister, my boyfriend, good friends by my side. It was pure bliss.

Still, at the end of the day… it is just a music festival! It is hot, your feet will hurt, it is crowded AF. A reminder to never be too fooled by the facade of social media 🙂 I’m looking at you mega-influencers who magically wear 5 outfits in a day and never have people in the backgrounds of their photos hahaha.

With that all said, let’s take a stroll down recent memory lane… and imma try not to cry while I type this, because oh man let me tell ya, I flew into Detroit for work at 5 am today, and am writing this from my sad hotel, and feeling REAL SAD. Oh! Also worth mentioning that I will be doing a separate post sharing all the details on my outfits, so stay tuned for that!

Thursday morning Fran and I caught an early AM flight to Palm Springs, and if you can’t tell by my mega cheezin’ grin, I was seriously on cloud nine! I just adore the Palm Springs airport; it’s entirely outside, mountains surrounding you, palm trees and flowers everywhere, the bluest skies you’ll ever see in your life, it’s just the happiest place to fly into!

Like last year, we stayed at Fran’s family house in Palm Desert, which is super close by and about 35 min from the festival. Last year, I flew into John Wayne airport in Orange County and did the 2 hour drive in with my sister. Not having to do that drive back post Coachella was amaaaazing hahaha, a bunch of guys in our group had to do it, left at 8 am… ugh. Yeet.

Shop my travel look here:

 

Like I mentioned, we stayed at Fran’s place in Palm Desert. We hired a van to pick us up and take us home from the festival every day, which I would highly recommend to anyone going. I heard people were waiting over three hours for ubers! I can’t even imagine how crazy the surge costs would have been. If you go, do yourself a favor and get a shuttle pass with your ticket, or make pre-arranged transportation plans.

I loved staying at the house; we would wake up early every morning and make english muffin and scrambled egg breakfast sammys (thank you boys for making all the meals this weekend!!), grab a beer, lay by the pool, have an ~aggressive~ chill out day before heading to the festival in the afternoon. My sister and one of her best high school friends were staying about 30 min from me, so I ended up going over there every day to finish up pre-gaming and get some much needed female energy hahah. Plus like… no brainer with seeking out the extra seester time. We got a ride from her roomie’s mom and we got dropped off VIP because they’re related to someone in Metallica and get the artist hookup experience- fun fact!

And just like that, we were there!!! You could feel the energy of everyone walking in that first day; it was electric.

Pro photo taking tip! The first thing we did once we got into the festival was head to the famous ferris wheel to snap some photos and get that out of the way, so we could relax and not think about it the rest of the day. My sister Kate and our friend Dylan are as extra as me when it comes to IG, so I was with good company. After day 1, we stuck to shooting in the golden hour, since the lighting is so soft, creamy, the sky seriously looks like cotton candy. I looooved how all of my day 2 and 3 photos turned out. We took these around 3 or 4 pm, and I wasn’t digging the overexposure and harsh quality I couldn’t seem to edit out! So if a cute ferris wheel picture is on your Chella bucket list…

Magicaaaaaaal, right?!! I mean, can you get over the amazing art installations they had this year?! It was very futuristic and space themed, something to look at wherever you turned. Silly story about the colorful cylinder building… Well, it may or may not have been until day 3 that Kate and I figured out what the f was going on with that thing. At first we thought there were people just lining up to walk around it inside, but then by day 2 we SWORE we saw the silhouettes of running children and women pushing strollers towards the top of it! Or people just walking very unnaturally, as if they weren’t human… They would be walking and then all of a sudden the shapes of their bodies would disappear. Which was, odd. So then we’re convinced it’s some sort of visual of people walking around. Third day we finally get up close to it, and it’s very clearly real people towards the bottom… But at the top we were still seeing the kids and strollers!! And thought it was maybe both? Idk man, I just wrote an entire paragraph sharing this very irrelevant experience because clearly it SHOOK ME. WHAT IS THE TRUTH?!?!

Now, the shows…

To be quite honest, I feel like I barely remember most of the artists I saw last year. My most vivid memories were going on the ferris wheel, hanging out a tooooon in the beer garden, and ending the night back at the house with everyone, sitting around the fire pit. This year, it was alllllll about the music for me. And I mean, how could it not… We had The Weeknd, Beyonce, Kygo, Post Malone, Cardi B… I seriously could not handle my excitement the entire weekend. And considering how expensive this bloody festival is, I am so so happy I got my money’s worth on that front! Seriously. It’s easy to not see the performances you really want to see if you’re with a big group! Kate, Dyl, and I (Fran popped in and out from hanging with his friends too!) had the exact same itinerary, so it worked out perfectly.

One of the most amazing things about this weekend was seeing SO many bad ass boss bitches perform. Kate and I kept commenting on it all weekend, joking that we could feel them transferring their girl power energy to us LOL. I mean, we saw Beyonce, MØ, Cardi B, Alison Wonderland (suuuuper gnarly chick, aggressive beats, just became the highest billed female DJ in Coachella history. Check out her “New Rules” remix if you’re into EDM, it was unreal). It was some POWERFUL shit, let me tell ya. Doesn’t get any better.

Here’s a full breakdown of the best, soul-stirring moments I experienced over the weekend:

• Starting the weekend hearing Alan Walker’s Faded; there’s just something about hearing that one pop-y electronic song you’ve just always reaaaaaally really liked performed live
• Taking on Alison Wonderland with my seester (I spent a long weekend with her and her roomies for her 21st and her sorority little is crazy into hardcore EDM, like chick is a legitimate raver, so the weekend was spent educating me on some of the harder stuff… So, good gateway into this show, which I probs otherwise would not have seen!) Alison Wonderland’s set was dark, aggressive, maybe even a lil scary? But I was FEELING IT. We danced, we bopped, she was such a bad ass.
• All. Of. Kygo. Like I swear, my heart was exploding with happiness and I could feel every beat pulsing through my body. There was the most insane light show accompanying the entire set, he played every song you would ever want to hear, and he had theeee most insane surprise guests lined up. Jamie Foxx popped onstage and took on “Sexual Healing,” Rita Ora sang “It Ain’t Me,” (too scared to face The Weekend, Sel??) Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic took the piano to play his band’s hit “Apologize,” (which was so beautiful and moving) and it immediately transitioned into an electrifying performance of “Stranger Things,” and Conrad Sewell performed a haunting acoustic version of “Firestone” (would never have known how unbelievable his voice is) before he yells out “Coachella I’m going to need you guys to sing this with me one more time…” Te original version blasts for the final encore, fireworks filling the air. My god, his entire set was pure magic; listening to his songs on Spotify just doesn’t do it justice. If you ever get a chance to see him in concert, I promise you will be blown away.
• When The Weeknd surprised us all with “Earned It,” holla atchya 20 Shades!
• When he ended with “The Hills.” SO LIT OMG. It was like everyone in the audience was internally screaming “ahhhhhhhh” as he sang. Just so much energy and excitement. Again, amazing production quality with the stage, visuals, special effects; Coachella really kills it with this.
• MØ’s entire set. I’m not exaggerating when I say I think that hour was one of the happiest I’ve ever felt in my life. It was just me and my sister, who is my literal soulmate and I never get to see, we were just holding our hands clasped in the air, belting out every word to every song. Which unknowingly, we knew. Plus, MØ was beyond amazing, I can’t even explain it. The girl has phenomenal pitch, crazy pipes, and daaaaaanced and put on one hell of a show. Her energy was so contagious, without a doubt one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. I just felt so happy the entire time. “Kamikaze” was soo fun to silly dance to, “Lean On” was everything I could have imagined and more, “Don’t Leave” tugged on all the heartstrings and gave us all the feels, and when she ended with “Final Song” you best believe we lost our shit. Goosebumps when I heard that opening beat.
• Seeing Louis The Child (which I learned this weekend does in fact have the S pronounced) perform; they went to high school with Kate and I and it was just unbelievable to see how many people came to see them and how they are truly living out their dreams. Fun fact, our high school offers seniors the opportunity to do a very structured “Senior Project” in lieu of attending class for the last couple months of school, and the guys did this as theirs. So only a few years ago, they would have had a booth and a big board set up in our gym, telling passing parents and students what they had learned, who they had been mentored by, showing off the work they had created for their project. Which is now being blasted at the overflowing Sahara stage at Coachella. Isn’t that incredible?
• POST MALONE!!! When he played Candypaint. Or Fall Apart. Or Psycho. Or just how cute and down to earth he was with all of his commentary! Such a cool dude. So many songs I had been wanting to see for so long, and the wait was well worth it.
• Heading to a stage to wait for Cardi B, and getting to hear Vance Joy play “Riptide.” We definitely did not expect to catch it, and it was such a nice little bonus moment!
• Seeing the always delightful Cardi B. She was so good on SNL and my expectations were met and then some; she joked in between songs “I’m running out of breath. You know my pregnant ass.” And she twerked. And brought out Kehlani, Chance the Rapper, G-Eazy… Ugh. Icon. Thank you universe for the national treasure that is Cardi B.
• The lightshow at Odesza. It was just beautiful, and it gave his normally chill and low key music so much passion and excitement. When the drones came out and started doing their crazy drone thing to the beat, everyone in the crowd lost it.
• And finally, Beyonce and Eminem. Getting to see these two legends perform was an experience I will never forget.

Okay now for the juicy bits of the weekend!! I teased a few of the celeb sightings and other shenanigans on my IG stories the other day so hopefully they don’t disappoint…

So first off, wanna know literally the first thing we see when we finally get through security and are walking into the festival? Kaia Gerber, as in underage model of the moment/Cindy Crawford’s daughter, passed out drunk being carried by one of her friends. The running joke was, “Stars… They’re just like us!”

Other celeb sightings include none other than the Biebs. He was hanging out, bopping along, living his best life at Greta Van Fleet, and was super super nice when my friend said hey to him! I also read that he saw some dude put a girl in a chokehold and he walked up and punched him in the face, so… respect.

Okay, kinda on the subject of Justin Bieber, I gotta talk about The Weekend crying his pretty little face off when he sang “Call Out My Name,” famously written about Selena. He almost gave her a kidney, you guys!! (Check out dem lyrics for the receipt). As my sister said during the performance, “Selena did him dirty.” And yes she did. He cried, and then he was PISSED. The show was like watching celeb relationship dramz unfold right before our eyes and I was living for it.

Other little bit of drama over the weekend? The fact that I had been so hyped to see Migos, Fran and I had been blasting Stir Fry at our place on average like 6 times a day, and here’s what happens… We get to the stage, it’s of course packed, so we kind of stand on the outskirts and wait for it to start. We can barely see the stage but it’s all good. The start time comes and goes; it’s been around 30 min until we finally hear something over the speakers. Kind of. We can hear them performing but it sounds veeeery, very far away… After a few min, we realize the speaker is busted. Maybe. The sound quality is very distorted, and even though we can’t see anything, it kind of seems like the guys are half performing, half doing nothing. A few min later, they’ve been replaced by a DJ playing their songs, and the majority of the crowd doesn’t even seem to notice. We ended up bailing to go get food; apparently they ended up giving a half ass performance. The secret dish is that someone was too f-ed up to perform, and the technical difficulties and lateness were all a diversion… I mean, I was at that same stage every damn day and there was never any issue. Also, I saw them pop up as secret guests at FOUR different Coachella performances last year and they were amazing! So, I stand by the theory.

Wanted to wrap this post off talking about food, obviously. I did noooot eat well last year, despite hearing how Coachella is so known for the food vendors they come. Besides some bomb pizza we ate mid shows, Sunday ended up being the day we ate everrrrrything. We hit up Milkbar for the cereal milk soft serve, and it was heavenly. We grabbed spring rolls at this little LA based Thai spot, and ate fried avocado tacos at a vegan pop up. Kate and I ended up being randomly in the mood for iced vanilla lattes before a show, and had some of the very best! ith everything going on, I feel like food can become the last priority (shocking for me, as I am always eating), but I am so glad we made a big effort to eat our way around the festival on the last day. Everything was amazing!

Phew, okay I think that’s all for now! Keep your eyes peeled for my Coachella outfit roundups, or shop everything I wore here!