THE ESSENTIALS

If you have never been to a music festival, this list is a generic list of what you should bring to ANY festival. What makes Coachella different than most festivals is that it is EXTREMELY popular. Some key differences include: Celebrities of all kinds go, different genres of music, and tons of drugs around.

It is definitely an experience you must do at least once. All ages are welcomed so if you want to bring your children, an adult just needs to be there.

Weekend 1: a lot of celebrities attend, people who tend to go for the hype go this weekend

Weekend 2: people who really want to appreciate the music tend to go this weekend

How to Get Wristbands:

First you need to find out what day the passes/wristbands go on sale – you can do this by searching on Google or visiting the Coachella website. On the day that the passes go on sale, go to Coachella.com and follow the instructions there. You will need to have an account. There will be a virtual waiting room and a waiting line – I suggest to only use one browser and do not click refresh! You should know ahead of time which weekend you want to purchase for and also what kind of passes you want to get before you start purchasing them. You can pick either Weekend 1 or Weekend 2 – they have different experiences and a different feel (we went Weekend 1 both times). For the passes, you can buy the General Admission ones or VIP. Depending on where you stay and how you want to get to the festival, you can also purchase shuttle passes as part of the wristband package (this is what we did).

Transportation:

There are a few ways you can get to Coachella – Driving, Uber, Shuttle

If you are driving to the festival, the general parking is free. You can also buy the VIP parking if you want to.

If you purchased a shuttle pass as part of the wristband package, then you can use the shuttles at any location. There is a list of hotels on the Coachella website that have shuttle stops. Our personal experience using a shuttle has been pretty good. There is a line but it wasn’t too bad.

To give you an idea of how long to wait for the shuttle GOING TO the festival, depending on the time you go, you can wait as little as a couple minutes to 20 to 30 minutes. Shuttles should be coming as frequent as every 15 minutes.

To give you an idea of how long to wait for the shuttle GOING BACK to your hotel, depends what time you go. There are about 8-9 different shuttle lines. Make sure to remember which shuttle line you come from. You have to enter the same line again. Each line has a specific route to follow. If you leave the festival early (before 12:30am), you don’t have to wait to enter the shuttle. If you leave the festival after the last performance, we waited an hour or longer to get on the shuttle in the cold.

Where to Stay:

You have different options when thinking about where to stay for Coachella. There’s camping, bougie camping, hotel, and an Airbnb.

I’ve only personally stayed at a hotel both times I’ve been. I’ve had friends who’ve had some really fun times staying in an Airbnb with a bunch of people. If you’re a people person, I would highly recommend this option. But if you can get tired of seeing people for a whole weekend straight, go for the hotel.

I’ve also had some friends tell me that they tried camping. I’ve gotten mixed reviews on camping. A guy friend of mine only likes to camp. He and his friends would save a lot of camping spots next to each other to make a big camp site. A couple tried camping and were not as prepared. They mentioned it was very windy and cold weekend 1. The wind was so bad that it caught their table tent. They also didn’t bring enough warm sleeping clothes and bags. They slept in once they checked into a hotel.

This is the hotel that we stayed at from Thursday night to Sunday morning. It was a pretty spacious community and there was even a gate that you have to drive through/walk through before you start getting to the rooms.

To bring to your hotel:

• Alcohol
• Portable Bluetooth stereo
• Swimsuit

To bring to Coachella:

• Portable battery
• Tennis/comfortable shoes
• Phone
• Money (they accept ApplePay, Square, all major credit cards including American Express)
• An awesome outfit

They are very Lenient at the security check point.

They will have you tag your right wrist with your wrist band on a podium. It will light up green after it recognizes your wristband has been activated. Make sure to activate it BEFORE you enter the premises. It is not a fast process. You have to download the app to activate it. They mention that you can be asked for an ID and it must match the name associated with the name registered to the ID. Hasn’t happened to me and I’ve sold my wristband for Sunday. No problems.

You will enter another line where they will check any bags. There will also be a metal detector. The lines are usually quick. They will ask you to empty your pockets and put your items in a small bowl to pass the metal detector. I did not see anyone get patted down.

What to do when you’re there:

Establish a meet up spot and time PRIOR to entering the festival. Remember that you will be attending one of the biggest events of the year. When that happens, there is bound to have service failures due to a high capacity of people in a small place trying to all use their phones so internet and text messages might not go through as well as calls. Pick an art structure or an easy meet up spot and pick a specific time.

When we were trying to meet up with our friends we would take pictures of what we see and send it to them:

Apparently the pictures were very helpful, if your friends got enough internet to load them lol

Make sure to visit each stage and each area – there is a lot to see! There are art structures throughout the festival grounds and also a lot of different food vendors as well.

This was one of the art structures this year among other ones that you can even go inside of or just sit under and enjoy. Some of the art installations have lines but if you go during a popular performance, it’ll go really fast. That’s true for every attraction.

As for food, this year they had Little Damage which is a soft-serve ice cream shop in LA. We like to go there for their charcoal cones –

One of the days you should just head there super early. It opens around noon or so. The festival closes around 12-1am-ish (whenever the last performer finishes). That way you can get a lay of the land and feel like you didn’t miss out on things.

Have your itinerary ready with the artists you and/or your group decide to see. I’ve seen people make excels, google docs, circle the line ups, use the Coachella app as a way to remember where, when and who they are planning to see and share it to their friends. Don’t just say you wanna go see this artist at the Coachella stage. It’s a big area. Make sure to pin point a spot like the light post has numbers on it. Example C4.

One of my favorite performances was Alan Walker at Sahara Tent and it was also during the day –

For people 21 and over, there are about 4 alcohol sections spread out. You need to get a wristband that states they checked your ID. There’s a lot of ID CHECK stands. Make sure to visit one every day you attend the festival. They will make you get another one if you wear the same one from yesterday. You cannot bring the alcohol outside these areas. Limited areas sell limited liquor. It will mostly be beer and wine. There is a craft beer barn as well.

Lastly, this is a 3-DAY festival so make sure to pace yourselves. Have fun, relax, and enjoy Coachella ✌