The Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival
April 17-19 in Indio, California.
Coachella, for all intents and purposes, is the LA festival. For this reason it tends to have a high celebrity quotient (think Paris Hilton dancing backstage to her namesake CSS song at the ’07 festival) and fantastic weather.
By fantastic, of course, we mean 110 degrees in the daytime and 50 degrees at night. Such are the perils of the desert climate. Expect to drink 8 bottles of water and not sweat a drop. If you’re camping, don’t expect to get much sleep. Despite “quiet time,” people will continue partying into the wee hours of the morning, and sleeping in is also almost impossible, as the morning sun is so bright and hot by 6am it will leave you scrambling for shade.
The Coachella Valley Arts and Music festival easily has some of the most beautiful atmospherics of any festival. Housed on a polo field, the entire grounds are covered in an expertly manicured, lush, green grass that feels more like a carpet than a field. Feel free to walk around barefoot (at least for the first day or two) without fear of stepping on an errant stone or patch of dirt. The views are incredible. Red and burnt orange mountaintops surround the area, and at night the multi-colored spotlights shooting across the sky are nothing short of spectacular. The field really does feel like an adult playground, with costumed players and giant sculptures, massive sprinklers and smiles as far as the eye can see. It’s easily one of the most expensive summer festivals, but the lineup and atmosphere usually warrant it.
April 17-19
The Empire Polo Field
81800 Avenue 51
Indio, CA 92201
Outdoor pavilion built on a polo field near Palm Desert, California.
Map! (via Google Maps)
Driving time from:
Palm Springs, CA – 30 minutes
Ontario, CA – 1.5 hours
Los Angeles, CA – 2.5 hours
Phoenix, AZ – 4 hours
Las Vegas, NV – 5 hours
San Francisco, CA – 8 hours
April 17-19 in Indio, California.
Coachella, for all intents and purposes, is the LA festival. For this reason it tends to have a high celebrity quotient (think Paris Hilton dancing backstage to her namesake CSS song at the ’07 festival) and fantastic weather.
By fantastic, of course, we mean 110 degrees in the daytime and 50 degrees at night. Such are the perils of the desert climate. Expect to drink 8 bottles of water and not sweat a drop. If you’re camping, don’t expect to get much sleep. Despite “quiet time,” people will continue partying into the wee hours of the morning, and sleeping in is also almost impossible, as the morning sun is so bright and hot by 6am it will leave you scrambling for shade.
The Coachella Valley Arts and Music festival easily has some of the most beautiful atmospherics of any festival. Housed on a polo field, the entire grounds are covered in an expertly manicured, lush, green grass that feels more like a carpet than a field. Feel free to walk around barefoot (at least for the first day or two) without fear of stepping on an errant stone or patch of dirt. The views are incredible. Red and burnt orange mountaintops surround the area, and at night the multi-colored spotlights shooting across the sky are nothing short of spectacular. The field really does feel like an adult playground, with costumed players and giant sculptures, massive sprinklers and smiles as far as the eye can see. It’s easily one of the most expensive summer festivals, but the lineup and atmosphere usually warrant it.
April 17-19
The Empire Polo Field
81800 Avenue 51
Indio, CA 92201
Outdoor pavilion built on a polo field near Palm Desert, California.
Map! (via Google Maps)
Driving time from:
Palm Springs, CA – 30 minutes
Ontario, CA – 1.5 hours
Los Angeles, CA – 2.5 hours
Phoenix, AZ – 4 hours
Las Vegas, NV – 5 hours
San Francisco, CA – 8 hours