The Coachella Craze

So what is Coachella you ask?

Coachella is only the biggest Music and Arts Festival in America at the moment. Held in the Coachella Valley, Indio, California the event attracts more and more people every year since 1999. A three-day festival, a whole weekend full of music and art.

Bands from all over the world provide the music for endless dancing into the night. Playing all sorts of music; indie, hip hop, rock and electric dance; anything you fancy. And art exhibitions that you will fall in love with.

Festivals are typically a ‘hippie dippie’ scene. Camping around the stages, connecting through music and art, maybe even falling in love. Dressed in flowy dresses and flowers in the hair, dancing around the camp fire. It’s a reminder of the 70’s and the free life style back then. In a way, for three whole days you can forget about everything else going on in your life and just simply have fun with your friends.

But, in the past couple of years all the famous people and ‘rich kids’ have turned the event into a contest of who wore the best outfit, who pulled of the bohemian style and who didn’t, who took the best photos and most importantly who they went with. They have turned it into the biggest fashion show of the year.

Saying that, you will also find those who are true to traditions and have not forgotten what a festival like this is all about. These people don’t show up in fancy cars and expensive couture. They turn up in a bus full of people like them who have been singing out loud, the whole way there, all the songs they are looking forward to hearing live on stage from their favourite artists. They wear their old baggy t-shirts and their wellies and have just a rucksack with the essentials. Forgetting about their mobile phones and the internet. Keeping memories, the old fashioned way, in their minds instead of posing and snapping so many pictures that they forget to actually have fun.

These are the people who go for the festival and not to show off. These are the people who go for the music and art and not for the Instagram posts. These are the people who go for the adventure and excitement of camping out on a field in the middle of nowhere, sleeping just a few hours a day so that they don’t miss anything and shower when they get home at the end of it. You might call them ‘hippies’ but that is what a festival is really all about. That’s where it all started. A band playing and people sitting around on the ground listening and singing along.

Essentially, Coachella is a big party bringing people from all over the world together for three days and nights. It’s about connecting and coming together with others, making new friends and memories. And it seems that for most it has lost this meaning.