Coachella 2010 part 1

For my very first blog entry, I would love to describe an event that takes place every year in the desert of California. It's a place where thousands of people come together to experience great music, inspiring art, and all around a good time. Coachella is more than just a festival, it's a mentality that people share of openness and togetherness. There's an unspoken knowledge that when you come to Coachella you are completely free of judgement and are able to be open your mind and experience something entirely new. Until last weekend, I was a Coachella virgin, and had no idea what I was going to embark on when my roommates and I set out late Thursday night. After a two and a half hour drive we arrived in the longest line of cars I have ever seen. For hours we waited in the security check line where we got a preview of our weekend with people starting the party outside their cars. Somehow by the grace of God we came up on a free camping pass so we were able to have our own car and tents set up right next to our friends. What looked like a gigantic garden maze of cars and tents filled up three huge parking lots. If you were to leave your spot to say go to the bathroom, you better have a vivid memory and some distinct marker for where your tent and car was because it was next to impossible to find it again. By the time everything was set up and our pathetic tents were pitched it was around six in the morning and the sun was coming up. After a whole two hours of sleeping the first night, the sun wakes us up in our tent where it is stuffy and hot and we had to peel our sweaty selves out of our sleeping bags. Time for the first day! The amazing coordinators of Coachella set up miniature "street" signs, that were completely invisible at night, so we were able to somewhat find out where our tent was and where our guy friends tent was, who we originally came to Coachella with. Our guy friends had been to Coachella before so they had their huge tents already prepared with plenty of shade. Needless to say we knew who we would be spending most of our time with :) As hot as it was, we had some time to kill before the first show so we caught up with our friends, ate some grub, and embarked on our first journey to the venue. On the way, there were many tents filled with good food, pit stops for water misters, and a lot of genuine artwork only made for Coachella. Our group consisted of about thirteen. One by one we passed through the walking security and ticket check and for our last couple friends made a tunnel for them to pass through with our hands. Turns out everyone thought the tunnel was a good idea so random people would come through screaming with excitement to finally be at Coachella. As we walked through the first part of the venue there were tons of carnival rides, beer gardens, and a gigantic ferris wheel close to the entrance. There was a total of five stages on this massive camp ground with one big stage in the middle with misters and mattresses lined up so people can sit and rest from the sun. That stage also had an amazing acrobatic performance group that were swinging from all corners of the stage with funky bongo music playing. In the middle of all the stages was a huge origami structure that we designated our meeting point in case we got lost from each other (which came in handy a lot). The main headliner JayZ would be performing that night so we had a lot to see before the main event which included, Iglu & Hartly, Calle 13, She & Him, Passion Pit, Pretty Lights, LCD Soundsystem, and finally JayZ. Right in the middle of LCD Soundsystem was when all of us realized where we were and actually took in the environment around us. We had a touching moment where I was so incredibly grateful for my friends and my life and we decided the theme song to our Coachella is All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem.