Coachella 2019: Thank You

Thank you to the people who made this event happen

• to Goldenvoice: the bookings this year were absolute fire
• to the construction crews: you turn this grassy field into the greatest concert venue in the world
• to Stage Production teams: too often the unsung heroes, you help these artists put on the shows of their lives. Moment of silence and gratitude again for Christopher Griffin
• to the Livestream crew (camera operators, editors, the tech folks at YouTube, and everyone else): watching these streams is a source of great joy to me and literally millions of others.
• to the Staffing contractors: you get a raw deal and deserve better, but collectively you were more chill and polite than any other event I've attended.
• to the food vendors: you may charge an arm and a leg, but you're an integral part of the experience and give me the sustenance and energy I need to survive. Special shoutout to the wonderful folks of Gerards <3
• to the Medics: I didn't need to visit you (and hopefully never will) but you've helped countless people at their worst moments
• to the art-installation creators: you take a concert venue and turn it into a magical wonderland. This includes our beloved balloon-string crews
• to anyone else I might have missed: if you did absolutely anything to contribute to making this event happen, thank you so much

Artists

A gigantic thank you the musical talent this year. This was one of the strongest lineups I've ever seen. We had all kinds of performers

• singers
• dancers
• guitarists, bassists, and drummers
• DJs
• rappers
• brass & string musicians
• VJ controllers

creating all kinds of music

• house
• techno
• electronica
• hip hop
• reggaeton
• punk
• kpop
• jpop
• country
• pop
• rock
• R&B
• soul
• world music
• and some that defy genre labels

From all over the world

• The United States and Puerto Rico
• Canada
• Mexico
• Columbia
• Chile
• Korea
• Japan
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• France
• Australia
• Russia
• Nigeria
• Trinidad & Tobago
• and so many more

Performing at an insane and diverse array of stages

• The vibiest place in the festival DoLab
• The hard-hitting Heineken House
• The punk warehouse Sonora
• The temple of house & techno Yuma
• The diverse Gobi (my favorite)
• The similarly diverse Mojave (my other favorite)
• The alien spaceship hanger Sahara
• The gorgeous Outdoor Theater
• The titanic Coachella Stage

This post isn't supposed about my personal favorites, and just about every artist I saw live or on the stream put on truly incredible and spectacular performances, but I have to give special props to these 6 that I think showcase the range of this lineup

• Lizzo: for preaching that self love and setting a packed Mojave tent on fire
• Perfume: for the spectacular electronic dance music / JPop spectacle
• Khruangbin: for the sexy psychadelic-funk guitar riffs
• FKJ: for the groovy daytime jams that I've waited for years to see at Coachella
• Four Tet: for the best DJ set I've ever seen
• Aphex Twin: for the most incredible audio-visual experience of my life

What didn't I like?

• Undercover cops who try manipulate people into selling them drugs. If someone approaches you offering to sell you drugs, fine, arrest them; they're clearly there trying to move product and I have no problem with you getting rid of them. But don't try to trap people into doing so. How about you focus instead on the rampant pick-pocketing rings, the people who are actually committing real crimes that are making the event worse for hundreds of attendees? Get your priorities in order.
• Similarly, the continued avoidance of harm-reduction with regard to illicit substances. I read recently that a huge percentage of people who can safely test their "MDMA" on-site throw it away when it turns out to not be what they were expecting. It's far better and safer to limit the damage of BAD drugs than to arrest harmless people.
• I disliked the sound in the DoLab. It was so quiet in there, and the bass was sorely lacking all weekend long. Additional speaker stacks for the sides of the tent would be most appreciated.
• I disliked that Guava Island wasn't ready, and that when they said it would be ready by midnight, what they actually meant was, it'll be ready for an exclusive screening that low-lifes like me weren't allowed into.
• Many other technical difficulties and delays. Lizzo's set in particular could have been derailed by them but she's a champ. Huge delays on the outdoor theater for Billie Eilish and Gesaffelstein. Sound issues during Ariana and several other shows
• Car Camping wait times. I arrived in Indio at 5:15am. I didn't get to my space until 11:15am. This was the worst entry experience I've ever had, and I might be done with Car Camping as a result. I'm surprised that something that is admittedly logistically challenging can get WORSE from one year to the next.
• Spectra was a holdover from last year. The Antarctic is in its third year. The astronaut is a retread from 2014. I get that some art is iconic, but fresh and new art is also a good thing.
• I absolutely hated the Kanye West drama around here. It was a huge buzzkill the entire run-up to the festival. And then the payoff being that he wasn't performing at the weekend I attended... blegh. And then the stream was through a pinhole camera. hOW aRtiStic.
• The soundbleed from Outdoor during Gorgon City overwhelmed acoustic Kacey Musgraves.
• Reports of pickpocketers and aggression at the Sahara tent. For the record, I didn't experience any of this first-hand. This is going to sound elitist, but screw it: if the shows you go to features these kind of crowd experiences, you're going to the wrong shows.
• Preferred Car Camping. The section below this features an excessively long rant that I second-guessed if I should include but I think it's important. The ongoing commodification of absolutely EVERYTHING has things going down a road that I don't want to walk down. It was fine this year. Lean into it TOO hard, and...

Mo Money, Mo Problems

It's been well-documented that Coachella might very well have died a quiet death after its first year when it failed to move tickets and resulted in a losses in excess of $1 million dollars (devestating for the fledgling Goldenvoice). Things have changed quite a bit though, as Coachella has gone from renegade upstart event to the pre-eminent event of the Music Calendar year. Watch this video for some background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcqJrMVrkhw

As I noted last year, I salute the organizers efforts for annual self-improvement. In the world of sports, an important aphorism is "if you're not getting better, you're getting worse" and it's pretty applicable to most entertainment enterprises as well. There are a infinite number of things competing for our attention every second of every day. Social media as a marketing tool demand our daily screentime and likes, sports leagues need us to tune in for the playoffs, Game of Thrones won't watch itself, vacations to Europe and Bali look great on our Instagrams.

However, as should be obvious, a money-making entity like AEG/Goldenvoice is not going to get better merely for the sake of getting better, regardless of whatever more noble aspirations that key players like Paul Tollett might have. We all live in service of the almighty dollar. For us lowly attendees, it grants us the opportunity to make our pilgrimmage to the desert (or to Europe, or to Cabo San Lucas, or to Australia, or to...) And for the promoters like Goldenvoice/AEG Live, the almighty dollar makes for a fat bottom-line, which makes for increased share prices and fatter dividend checks every year or quarter.

Service to the almighty dollar has motivated a lot things: Expanding to 3 days. Expanding to 2 weekends. Expanding attendance to 125,000 per day. Adding more food vendors. Adding more merchandise. Corporate sponsorship by H&M, by HP and Intel, by AmericanExpress, by Cupcake Vinyards, by Heineken, by Postmates, by Google Pixel, by Pantene, by Calvin Klein, by Peet's Coffee, by Amazon, by Absolut, by Red Bull. More tickets, higher prices, more sponsorships, social media posts, where does it end, WHERE DOES IT END? Sincerely though, where does it end? If Coachella 2019 ends up less profitable than Coachella 2018, what will the reaction be in board rooms and on conference calls? Will people be furious and will heads roll? I find it hard to believe that promotors will shrug their shoulders and be content to make tens of millions of dollars in profit, if in COMPARISON it's less than last year, or less than projections. The mindset in these meetings is more, More, MORE, set new projections, beat those projections and if not then someone will have to answer for that failure.

The profit motive will start to strangle this festival more than it already has. Will GA & Car Camping prices go up next year? Will they make more (or all) of Lot 8 Preferred, and will the price of Preferred go up? Will waters increase to $3/bottle? Will my Paella cost $20 instead of $16? Where does it stop?

The spirit of music festivals traces back to counter-culturalists of the 1960s to gather for a few days of love and peace, to celebrate the life-changing experiences they had with each other and listening to music that was opening their minds and bringing them together. That spirit lives on in smaller fests that are better categorized as "Transformational Festivals", which are more "Gathering" than "Concert". Coachella is not a gathering for the counter-culture. Coachella IS popular culture. The biggest pop stars in the world jostle for the chance to have the spotlight and stream their show to millions online (sometimes, at the expense of those in the field right in front of them). Celebrities and entertainment industry leeches gather offsite in their tight-security parties to rub elbows. Social media influencers descend on the desert to shill for the corporatocracy. And worst of all, average joes not unlike you and I buy a ticket because it's "the place to be", because we got jealous of our friends social media albums that show them having an amazing time in the grassy fields full of gorgeous people and instagrammable art installations.

This festival should not be centered around transactions. It's supposed to be a celebration of creativity, of self-expression, a celebration of art and our shared experience of being human. I earnestly hope that those with power and influence over the event hold this creed near and dear to the heart. When the spirit dies at the top, it cascades all the way down to the bottom.

So what did I actually like?

• I loved the size of the DoLab. I was an advocate for expanding it, and now it's big enough to house a ton of people and give a lot of shade during the day (though not in the middle, because they left huge holes over the middle for some reason)
• I liked that water is still $2
• I liked the crowds that I was a part of all weekend.
• I liked the idea of Guava Island playing in the campground.
• I liked the idea of Sunday Service.
• I liked the upgraded Yuma tent. One of the coolest music venues in the entire goddamn world.
• I liked the new Heineken House. I finally set foot in there for the first time this year, pretty cool space. Would have loved to have seen the Roots but I was quite preoccupied elsewhere.
• As noted, I LOVED the music. It's what draws me back year after year.
• I love the people. Read on.

To My Fellow Attendees

A big thank you to my beautiful fellow festival attendees. This year in particular, every person that I met was kind, warm and friendly. I had a great time making friends in the crowd during performances, in line for a bite to eat, sitting in the shade of an art installation, everywhere.

An article of faith among long-time attendees that I've spoken to: "the crowd gets a little worse every year". To a certain extent this is true. As long-time veterans like myself age out of the target demographic, or move on to new experiences like other big festivals, or choose to travel abroad, or start a family, we drop out of the attendee pool and our ticket is purchased by someone for whom this might be their first festival ever. This freshman attendee doesn't view the experience as sacred, they likely don't have the same knowledge of crowd etiquette, they may not be as open-minded and friendly. Not everyone who attends buys into the universal wisdom and truth of the raver creed of PLUR: Peace Love Unity and Respect. Certain attendees have no interest in PLUR; they're much more interested in turning up, getting lit, and going hard at shows that feature "energy" and "hype". There are some stages and artists that I'm turned off of by the crowd that attends them.

But here my friends, I must emphasize one of the most important lessons I've learned of all about Coachella: It doesn't belong to you. It doesn't belong to me. Coachella belongs to EVERYONE - even people you might not like much. There is no singular Coachella, there is no one RIGHT way to experience the weekend. There are 125,000 different Coachellas happen all at the same time. My friends and I talk about enjoying YOUR Coachella, doing what you want to do. I'm not hung up on where my friends are, on what's happening elsewhere on the grounds, on what guest is showing up at a show I'm not at, on obsessing over what's coming next, of worrying about how other people are living their festival life. If they came to Coachella for the experience, and they're dressed to the nines taking perfect photos with the art... good for them! They're doing Coachella their way and they're having a great time and I'm sure they'll cherish their memories every bit as much as I cherish mine. More power to them, it doesn't take away from my experience.

Childish Gambino and Billie Eilish both had moments in their set where they talked about living in the moment, which to me is what Coachella is all about. Enjoy what you are doing with your life, with your Coachella, RIGHT NOW. And if you're not enjoying what you're doing where you're at, if you don't like the people in your immediate vicinity, you have the power to move a few feet away, to move to a different stage, to embrace your friends that you need some space from and agree to meet up later. At no other point in my life do I feel more free and self-actualized than immersing myself in the thrills and breath-taking beauty of every second of the event.

And to those of you suffering from PCD (Post-Coachella Depression), keep your chin up. You're coming off one of the great highs of your life, but it need not make the regular day-to-day grind of the "rEaL WoRlD" seem insufferable and boring. You're not going to be sad the day after your wedding day because the day before was so full of love and happiness. You should be even happier: you've changed for the better and today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Conclusion

Festivals, Coachella especially, have changed my life. It was put best by the wise gentleman at the end of Coachella's "The Golden Hours" video:

"It's a music festival. But it's so much more than that. It kinda changes your life. You learn that people can be happy, that things don't need to bother you as much, you kinda go with the flow. There's gonna be a struggle every once in a while but you make the most of it. And at the end of the day all of that struggling creates this unique experience that you'll never get the rest of your life that you get to enjoy once, or maybe a few times if you're lucky. But you start talking about these sunsets and these mountains, show me a picture and it'll flash back memories for a lifetime."

He hit the nail on the head. My life is so much richer and happier on a day-to-day basis because of the experiences I've had at Coachella and other festivals. I really do believe that the world is a better place when more people have had these experiences.

My experiences in the desert these past few years have changed me for the better. My musical tastes have evolved dramatically, and I appreciate forms of music that would have been strange and unpleasant to me the first year that I went. When I'm on the Polo Fields, it really feels like every person I meet is my friend. I want to hear who they are, what they've seen and loved, is it their first Coachella, has it lived up to their experience, all of the things. Every year of Coachella I come back feeling a little more whole, a little more like the person I aspire to be every other day of the year.

Coachella is really important to me. It's more than a party in the desert with my friends. It's more than the best concert of the year. It's more than social media posts. It's more than a single weekend getaway from my problems. It's more than a pop-culture event.

Coachella is... well, it's all things to all people. Your Coachella is what you make of it. For me, among other things, it's a journey of self-discovery and improvement. It's my moment to connect with popular culture, with both my own generation (dwindling in attendance every year) and the generations coming up behind me. It's my chance to open my mind and heart to new artists and sounds that I've never heard before. Coachella is a little slice of heaven. I want it to remain that way.

To Paul and the Goldenvoice team, to all of the vendors and contractors, thank you for curating and creating an incredible experience for us. It really does mean a lot to me and I hope that the spirit of this event is as important to you as it is to me. I hope it's enough that you create one of the absolute best experiences for devoted fans like me every year. I hope that you still think of attendees like me as your primary customer. Entertainment industry leeches, social media influence-peddlers, and first-time festival-attendee schlubs will still make it out to desert every year because of the power of prestige. I come every year because there's something more special and intangible that cannot be commodified, packaged, branded, and sold. It would break my heart if I one day look around me at Coachella and feel out of place. My life is in your hands, dudes.

Happy Coachella!

Submitted April 24, 2019 at 07:11AM by shanahanigans http://bit.ly/2Dwr4Bx