This was our highly anticipated music festival trip out to beautiful Indio, California. Coachella was an amazing trip out to the desert to hear some of the most influential musical artist. This was our first times at this incredible festival. With that we had some great experiences and some helpful tips for those planning their first trip to this desert oasis.

Tickets

For starters if you wish to go to this event you need to purchase your tickets way in advanced. We purchased ours in June 2015. Keep in mind tickets for this event don’t come cheap, but you are getting 3 full days of music form some of the largest names out there. (check out some of the previous years line-ups and you will see what i mean)

It is best to get the tickets the day they come available online. If you plan on holding out to see who will be playing at Coachella before we make the plunge, sorry that isn’t how this rodeo works. You have to take a lead of faith and get the tickets! The line up is normally announced just a couple of months before Coachella starts and by then the tickets are all ready sold out! But it still excited non-the-less!

Here are 3 thing to have in mind when getting your ticket

1. how many tickets are you buying
2. what weekend did you want to go (they hold the event 2 weekends back to back, you need to choose which one you want to attend. The bands and schedule will be the exact same both weekends)
3. will you be camping or not. (you will need to buy a camping pass with your tickets and those too go very fast)

The tickets tend to sell out very quickly and you are only likely to get them on the first day they come available so have some time and a laptop set aside to get those tickets. For details on this go to coachella.com.

Like I mentioned earlier the tickets are not cheap but thankfully they offer payment plans or installments, makes it much easier to save up for this awesome event!

Prep:

From the time you buy your tickets to the time you leave you will have lots of time to get ready. This will allow you to get cool clothes, any camping supplies and plan out your days.

Depending on wether your are going to drive to Coachella, fly, camp or stay in a hotel will depend on what you should prep for.

If you are planning on staying in a hotel, book it early. They will go quick and depending on where you are staying there will be shuttles to and from your hotel. All this info is available on coachella.com

What to were:

Coachella will be a great time to bust out new looks and have fun. I will say tho Indio will be scorching hot during the day, and if you plan on staying till midnight you find it to get a little cold. So Layers will be your best friend.

• Comfortable shoes- You will be on your feet all day and standing through several sets.
• Shorts-It will be hot
• Watch-you will be checking the time constantly to make you are on time for your lineups.
• Sunglasses
• Hat
• bandana- On windy dusty days you will be glad you have one to cover your face.

Fanny pack /backpack- Fanny Packs are best! easy access to your stuff and in crowed areas you won’t be bothering those behind you. Backpacks are nice cause you can fit a camel pack in there for more water! You will be drinking a TON of it.

Camping:

For us we didn’t live too far so we drove our own car and decided to camp to get the whole Coachella experience.

Here are some tips about camping. First you will be camping really close to on anther and those that are pulling into the campsite in front of you and behind you will likely be you neighbors

This place will be your home away from home, if you don’t come prepared it could be a nightmare. Luckily there is a general store at the camp ground that will have pretty much anything you may have forgotten. Here are the a few must haves!

1. Tent! – You could sleep in your car (our neighbors did, but it looked pretty cramped on trying to drift off on toyota corolla chairs)
2. Easy-Up or Other portable shade – I will be sunny and hot! There is a lot of time to kill before the gates open and spending that time in the sun before you send all day in the sun will have you burnt and burnt out for the festival. **BEWARE it gets WINDY out the festival and that wind WILL destroy your canopy! If it gets windy take the cover off.**  The wind killed our neighbors and other campers canopies, we just took the cover off ours everyday when we left our site for the festival. Saves you the time from having to run back if the wind kicks up.
3. Tent Stakes & rubber / plastic mallet – To keep your shelter in place cause it will blow away.
4. Tarps – For walls on the canopy, the sun will come at an angle and you will thank me later for have a tarp to put on the side to give you more precious shade.
5. Camp Chairs – You Sit in them.
6. Small folding table
7. Cooler & Ice (dry ice lasts longer) – Get ice the day you drive out, or just before you get to your site. This will guarantee you get the most out of it. They sell some at the camp site but its in high demand so it runs $10 a bag there vs 2-3 at a gas station.
8. Air mattress with battery pump – you are going to be there 4 nights. The ground will get old.
9. Sleeping bag or blankets – doesn’t get super cold but it will keep you comfy.
10. Pillow – Easy to forget but hard to go without.
11. Battery Pack – Your cellphone will die, unless you want to get stuck at a charging station or hold out in your car this is a life saver!
12. Wet Wipes – A total must have! Help to keep you clean and comforable after using toilet paper in a dry hot desert. Shower in a wipe.
13. Plastic forks & Paper Towels – Disposable is always nice.
14. Allergy medicine – You will need it.
15. Sunscreen – Its sunny there and you will be in it 3 days in a row.
16. Toothbrush/toothpaste
17. Ibuprofen – Your body will hurt in places you didn’t hurt before, ease that pain and party on!
18. Flash light & Lantern – I don’t have night vision so this helps.
19. Earplug – Some stages will be loud. And if you are a light sleeper there will be music bumping till 5am
20. Spare Keys – They can get lost, so give one to a friend or hide one by your car (just no on the tire).
21. Duct Tape – Its amazing, million uses. We brought some our first time to Coachella and what do you know we needed it!
22. Trash Bags – for trash & dirty cloths etc.

Food:

Heres the deal with food cause you my ask yourself what should I pack for 4 days meals. You may quickly find your self wanting to go the whole nine yards with a camp stove, hotdogs condiment etc. Then when you arrive realizing you WAY over packed. There is plenty of food at the venue and camp area. The venders will have pretty much everything, asian, burgers, pizza, mexican,  even something for your vegan friend. Go try the food its really good!

As for the wife and I we just brought Bagels and Cream cheese for breakfast. Snack food like chips and trail mix jerky for the in-betweens, and late night munchies. And some cool sports drinks. Other than that, we just found ourselves getting lunch and dinner at the venders. Which had a wide verity of food types and price so that made it nice and easy!

For the festival:

1. Phone – It doesn’t work half the time, but it’s your phone. use it to take pictures (no DSLRs in the festival)
2. EMPTY water bottle or camel back – They won’t let you in the venue with a fill one. There will be spots to fill once inside.
3. Sunglasses
4. Hat – Can be nice, but if you have your SPF on your can go without one.
5. Your Ibuprofen – standing all day can get painful take this and you got a second wind. (make sure its in the original marked container)
6. Money Clip & ID – you don’t need EVERYTHING in your wallet just the ID an visa or cash and you are good to go.
7. Bandana – It will get dusty try to wear it when you can so you don’t swallow the whole desert.
8. mini flash light – Helpful when needing to find a dropped item or get your self back to camp.

Optional but nice: 

1. Playing cards – we had a lot of time to kill Thursday night and before going into the festival.
2. Battery x-mas lights – makes camp look cool and nice to see.
3. Speakers – Thats my jam!
4. Fan with Mister – Dollar store will have something like this. That dollar will go a long way.

Other Pro Tips!:

1. Wristband – Put your wristbands on when you leave to fly or drive out! You don’t want to forget those! No wrist band no Coachella.
2. Get your Merchandise First thing Day 1! – On Friday get to the gates right when they open and got directly to the merchandise tent & Coachella store to pick up your favorite band tee or Coachella swag, sizes and styles tend to go fast, so the beginning of the first day of Coachella is the best time to get that out of the way.
3. Vehicle Checks – If you are camping be sure your car is free form any kind of weapon knife, or pocket knife, they will take it away at vehicle inspections and its gone forever. We had a multi-tool left over in our jeep glove box from Moab and they took it. Damnit! so learn from our mistake.
4. Canopy – Take the top off your canopy when gone at the festival all day! even if its not windy it might pick up later and this will save your shade!
5. AC – If you are looking for some place to cool off there are a couple of places with a little AC,  the heineken house is one, but it will be packed and a line likely. And the Record shop! They need to keep the Records cool so the don’t warp so if you just need to cool down a bit, go check out the cool selection of vinyls and chill.
6. Cool Filtered Water – H&M shop had a chilled filtered water fountain.
7. Don’t bring a ton of fool that is reliant on a iced cooler. You will find your Ice will be all melted by Sunday afternoon. We just had cool drinks apple sauce cups and cream cheese spread for our bagels  (which was gone by Sunday morning) So we didn’t need to by another $10 bag of ice.
8. Food Venders –  Try the food! its not your typical carny food! There is some good stuff there, from sliders to Crab fries , to full on vegan dishes. Finish it all of with an amazing ice-cream sandwich from the “Afters” ice cream vender.

Austin socks was his star item of his outfit. He got tons of complements.Afters Ice Cream makes these amazing doughnut ice cream sandwich ^ ^ Chainsmokers’ performanceCalvin Harris finished off the night with some great music & fireworks