13. Go to a big music festival (Coachella baby!)
With all of the Coachella hype happening right now, I couldn’t wait to write about this experience. Though I’ve already crossed off some other items off my list, I’m still on a high from my Coachella weekend so I had to share right away! It’s fresh on my mind, and I’ve just spent my post Coachella trip weekend live streaming weekend 2 of the festival haha.
Ok, you heard that right, I WENT TO COACHELLA!! It was a trip months in the making to surprise my best friend for her 40th birthday. With some of the major headliners being Lady Gaga, Missy Elliot, and Green Day, the festival spoke to our high school days and was an experience we couldn’t pass on. I had always talked about attending Coachella in my 20’s. Life got busy, I ended up never going. Once I started a family and settled down, I thought I was too old and “past those days”. Last year after recovering from cancer, I realized I would regret it if I never took the leap. The coachella weekend just so happened to be the weekend after my 40th birthday and that made it even easier for me to book it. It was going to be four moms in our forties heading to Coachella for the first time. We were all excited and terrified all at the same time, especially given the state of the world at the moment. Nevertheless, we spent a fortune on the trip and we were going to go no matter what! I even designed a shirt for the girls trip!
THE PREP.
As far as music festivals go, I’ve only ever been to some local music festivals. The biggest festival I had attended was the Squamish Valley Music Festival (which no longer exists) in B.C. and I was 28. I loved the music aspect of it; I hated the camping and the crowds. Thus, heading in to Coachella was a little daunting, especially because it is one of the most popular festivals in the world. I knew it was going to be busy as hell. Prior to going, we read a bunch of blogs about prepping for the festival. As the true moms we are, we came prepared and packed safety glasses, emergency blankets, misting fans, bandanas, hydration packs, toilet paper, and even wet wipes. I laughed at first because it seemed a bit excessive. We didn’t need the safety glasses or the blankets but the rest actually came in pretty handy and saved us from the heat, germs, and dust on multiple occasions! #bettersafethansorry
THE STAY.
We made sure to book the Marriot Desert Springs Villas over the camping experience. We can be honest with ourselves. At our age, we can afford to spend the extra dollar and be comfortable for this weekend ;) (Cue Victoria Ratliff quote from White Lotus Season 3) haha.
And comfortable we were! It was 10000 degrees outside, so we would spend some of our afternoons cooling off in our hotel room with AC or at the resort pool.
TRANSPORT.
We knew driving would be a hassle so despite having a rental car, we also paid for shuttle passes. I have to say the shuttle experience was great! No matter how busy it was, we never had to wait in line for longer than 5 minutes. The shuttles came often, they we’re clean, on time, and well organized. The Marriot Desert Springs resort is one of the closer stops so we only had to be on the shuttle for 30-45 minutes depending on the time of day.
FESTIVAL EATS.
Prior to our trip, I had heard about the food at the festival and how they have some of the best street food. The lines were a bit long and for some of the booths, we ended up waiting over 20 minutes for our food. After our first food vendor experience, I ended up just going to whatever booths had the shortest line. They didn’t disappoint though. My favourites were (Tacos 1986, Maneatingplant, Laomazing, Gerard’s Paella, All Dat Dumpling, All Dat Noodle, and Oakberry Acai. Some meals I ate too fast to even take a picture haha. I think I had about 5 servings of those soup dumplings in just three days! I was obessessed!
As for drinks, we didn’t drink too much at the festival. The wait times were too long and they were pretty expensive (especially when you convert it to Canadian - which is about $35 a drink). Our goal was really to stay hydrated in the heat. We did visit some of the branded drink tents like the Aperol tent, White Claw tent, Gin & Juice tent, and Redbull tent. Each of them had their own signatures drinks we could try. The Gin & Juice tent had a fun low rider car activation.
THE MUSIC.
Now onto the main part of Coachella! The music!! We knew it would be nearly impossible to see every artist. The walk from each tent took at least 5-10 minutes and the artists set times overlapped. Plus, the heat was just too much for us Edmontonians so we mainly went to the festival in the late afternoon/early evenings. We did what we could and saw some of our favourite artists and checked out some new ones.
Day 1
Lola Young - We saw the tail end of her show and got to sing along with her for popular song “Messy”.
Layla Benitez at the Do Lab - There were misters and dancers spraying the crowd with water at the Do Lab. After being incredibly overwhelmed by the festival venue, crowds, and heat in the first hour of our experience, the Do Lab ended up being my favourite spot simply because of the cool “misting mushroom” installations and the vibe (see video below). We gravited there not even knowing who Layla Benitez was. Eventually Bob Moses (a Canadian electronic music duo from Vancouver B.C.) came on. Both of their sets were great. We danced away while being misted with water. There’s no better scenario than that! We were dancing right by the speakers though so it became apparent that we needed to purchase some Loop ear plugs for the rest of the weekend before our ear drums burst.
Benson Boone - My two girl friends went to see him and said he was incredible. I’m a bit sad I didn’t get to see his set, especially because Brian May came on stage to perform Bohemian Rhapsody!! All good though, I watched the replay of the live stream afterwards and am now determined to go see him on tour.
Lisa (from Black Pink)- I only found out about Lisa a week before Coachella and that’s because she’s Mook on White Lotus Season 3! She’s a great performer and did a little shoutout to her White Lotus fans (see video below)!
DJ Pee. Wee aka Anderson .Paak - After Lisa, we just happened to go back to my fave spot at the Do Lab and walked into an incredible set by DJ Pee.Wee. He is the DJing alter ego of Anderson Paak a singer, song writer and rapper. We didn’t stay long as it was a PACKED ;) and they were having some technical difficulties but overall great to see live. He mixes different genres and some of his own music into his DJ set.
The Marias - At this point, I was exhausted. My bestie and I camped out at the flower installation bean bags while we listened to the Marias from afar. Her voice is super calming anyways so it went with our chill vibe at the time.
Missy Elliot - I’m glad I rested up because I spent the ENTIRE set “working” my butt off. Missy was as good as I thought she’d be. My friend took a nap after her show from all of the dancing haha.
Lady Gaga - The. Best. Show. I’ve. Ever. Seen. Period. The choreography, the stage set, the costumes, the vocals. Everything was amazing! She told a story with her music too and made us all feel like we were in an opera house. She is just on another level. I loved her show so much that I watched the live stream replay of week 1 AND again for week 2! #gagachella.
A the end of day one: 8 shows later, a nap, and some REALLY sore knees and ankles. I had to soak my legs in the cold water afterwards haha.
Day 2
We were absolutely exhausted after day one that we took a break for day two and only attended the festival in the evening. Our intention was to see T-Pain but we didn’t make it so we ended up just seeing Charli XCX and Green Day. It was incredible to see Billie Eilish and Lorde show up for Charli! I had already seen Green Day live so it was no surprise to me that they would still be great nearly 20 years later. It’s actually hard to imagine that Billie Joe Armstrong is 53 years old and still rockin’ it! They brought up a couple of fans from the audience. One guy played “Time of Your Life” on Billie’s guitar like he was a pro! Incredible.
Day 3
After a break on day two, we really tried to make the most of day three and headed to the festival in the afternoon which was probably the hotest day of the trip at a scorching 35 degrees!
The Beaches - I really wanted to see the Beaches. Not only because they are Canadian but because they’re from Toronto (where I went to post secondary) and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them live back when they were called Done with Dolls. Eitherway, I’m always willing to support Canadian talent and they were great live!
Shaboozey - We took a break to basque in the sun and watch Shaboozey from afar. I really only know a couple of his songs (mainly “A Bar Song:) so it was nice to hear some new stuff and watch others around me do the two-step!
Beabadoobee - Prior to going to Coachella, I listened to a festival playlist and came across her music. She has a nice chill vibe to her. We listened from afar while dancing in the sprinklers to keep us cool. Her stage set was beautiful and filled with cherry blossoms!
Tiesto - On our way to see Tiesto, we took a food break and stopped to see Rema but he was 20 minutes late so we gave up. Once we got to Tiesto, we couldn’t even get near the stage as there were SO MANY PEOPLE. Turns out, Tiesto is still really popular! Though I’m not sure if some of the youngins knew why they were there. A girl asked me if he was on yet and he was clearly already part ways through his set with the camera on his face on screen haha.
Boris Brejcha - We stumpled upon him at the Sahara stage randomly after looking for the Gin & Juice tent. He is a German DJ with a fun transient vibe. We danced away being mezmorized by the rotating graphics on the massive screen behind him (see video below).
Megan Thee Stallion - This was another one where I danced the entire set. I loved the choreography. The best part was seeing Ciara and Queen Latifah join her on stage (see videos below). It was unfortunate to see her sound get cut off at the end of her set because she was 2 minutes over her time. She took it with grace though.
Post Malone - The last show of the festival and then there were two. There were only two of us who stayed until the end. My body hurt like hell and I was exhausted but I was determined to see it all. We got a little closer to the stage for Posty. He was really down to earth and sounded great. You can tell he has a passion for his music.
THE ART.
The one thing I wasn’t expecting was how cool the art installations and spaces were going to be. From colourful towers (Taffy), windmills (Take Flight) to air filled flowers a top of bean bags (Le Grand Bouquet), a rainbow staircase (Spectra), misting mushrooms as I call them (Do Lab), and of course the wheel itself. Here’s a short article about some of the artists and the concepts behind their art installations.
THE FASHION.
I always love a good excuse to dress up and it seemed like Coachella was a place to really express your style. There were some really great outfits (also lots of booty!), some dressed as fantasy characters, some in full on mascot gear! My friends and I didn’t go that far but we did have themed outfits for each of the festival days (Leopard print, denim, and boho). I ended up thrifting quite a bit of my Coachella wardrobe with items from local Edmonton shops Mod Uncorked, Plato’s Closet, and Value Village. I also designed my own pattern to press on to a $20 thrifted denim jacket!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS.
Aside from Coachella, we did spend some of our days exploring random spots around Palm Springs & Palm Desert.
Eats - Breakfast Republic (we went there twice it was so good), Normas at the Parker Palm Springs (insde a really cool high-end hotel), Wilma & Frieda (I got a Caesar in the U.S.!), Mikado at the Desert Springs Golf Club (also to see the Flamingos).
Shopping - We went to two different Targets (note the one near El Paseo Drive was the better one), shops at El Paseo, and The Fine Art of Design vintage clothing shop (really great if you LOVE thrifting! - I found an AMAZING vintage beaded jacket and a brand new Farm Rio dress there.
FORTYCHELLA IS THE WAY TO GO.
All in all, we had an incredible time. We were real with ourselves. We may have missed some of the festival experience, but I think we got the best of it and with a little R&R while we were at it. I would 1000% go again even in my 50s ;). This was a trip of a lifetime. It not only forced me and my best mom friends to go on this crazy Coachella adventure for the first time in our 40s, but it pushed us all out of our comfort zone. And you know what? We had an incredible time. The festival brought back my spirit, and made me feel young again. My husband told me I came back with a little extra skip in my step! haha I’m unsure how that’s physically possible because my knees and hips have been achy ever since. ;)
