Rumor Has It, This Place Is Magic!

It's been a week since the greatest weekend out of the year, and I can still smell the familiar stench of grass and anticipation. I close my eyes, and I can still see the mountains and the palm trees encircling the desert oasis around me. My lips still tingle with the sweet taste of boxed-red wine and I can still hear thousands of whoops and hollers coming from the all over the polo fields. There is nowhere else quite like it and no other place that can make a troubled heart feel whole- Coachella.

Once a year, Goldenvoice puts on this miraculous 3-Day music festival at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California and pack it full of a wide variety of artists from indie and hip hop to electro and punk. Coachella consists of 2 outdoor stages, 3 tent stages, and 2 smaller nonstop dance stages. Not only is Coachella an honorable place for musicians to perform, it is also a premier location for visual artists to showcase their work. I have seen some amazing artists and some incredible shows at Coachella. This year alone I had the  privilege to see performances by Explosions in the Sky, Swedish House Mafia, Flying Lotus, Radiohead, Childish Gambino, Santigold, and Dr. Dre with Snoop Dogg (to name a few). Artists go all out for Coachella, bringing in special guests and showing off their best moves to impress the festival goers. I cannot imagine a better weekend than being surrounded by incredible music, jaw-dropping art, and amazing friends.

This past year was my fifth year at Coachella. Each year is different; full of new music, art, and crazy stories. Each year I use this weekend off to reflect on my life over the past year. I give myself enough alone time to digest exactly what happened last year, what is happening this year, and who/what really matters in my life. As I watched the orange and red colors of Saturday morning's sunrise paint the sky over the Coachella Valley and above the ferris wheel, I could not help but wish everyone I loved was with me watching in awe as God gave the campers His best light show. I sat and thought about my sister, who has gone to Coachella twice before, and imagined she was next to me. I would have told her how happy I was that she was able to make it and how I think Coachella is the best thing that ever happened to her. I would tell her how happy and proud of her I am and how I could not think of anyone better to spend that sunrise with. Even in my memory of that early morning, I still see her right beside me.

As much as I wanted my big sister next to me during my favorite weekend out of the year, it is still encouraging to know that she has been to Coachella before and has therefor grown and discovered herself in ways that only Coachella can teach a person. I believe that everybody should experience Coachella, at least once. My first year was such a learning experience and I feel like I gained knowledge about society, culture, and myself that I would never have learned without the help of the communal bonds and kindness of Coachella strangers. I want everyone to know that exact feeling. Year after year, I pray for two of my best, lifelong friends to magically come up with tickets and to camp along side of me while we run and play in the grass and listen to music that makes our soul weep with joy. For one those friends, Coachella would be a home away from home; for the other, a life-changing weekend and a surprise love-affair for everything Coachella stands for. It is my vow to get these friends to Coachella. Mark my words: it's gonna happen.

Coachella is more than just a music festival, it's a state of mind. Coachella is helping a stranger hold their campsite together during high winds, it's offering a beer to a complete stranger because they wished you a "Happy Coachella," it's getting together with old friends and new friends and making old friends feel new again while making new friends feel old. Coachella is both what the world should be like and what the world will never be. It is about strangers coming together with the common goal of making it the best weekend of the year, and it never seems to fail. Every year I claim that this will be my last year and every year I depart Monday morning with a tear in my eye and a soft whisper: "see you next year."

*Thank you, Eric Hankins for your wonderful photo-art! You're amazing!*