Coachella, California; where your inner festival- goer comes to life!

May 21, 2017
5 min read

In April I had six days off and took a girly trip with a few of my friends to LAX, to go to a music festival. 'Coachella Valley Music Festival & Arts'. This was a music festival like no other, if you are a keen festivaller- Yup I've made that word up- and you are yet to have the 'Coachella' experience, then make it top of your to do list for 2018!

For ayone that has ever dreamt of going then just do it! Yes it may be expensive, yes its a hec of a long journey (for some people) just for a festival but seriously this isn't just any old music festival...

This is THE music festival.

The line up caters to all tastes, if you are into your hip hop/rap/r&b but also like indie then you are in the right place. There were hundreds of different acts and the layout of the festival made sure it was easy to hop from one to another in no time at all

This is the festival to go to if you are into a bit of everything, and it doesn't matter what age you are because it is great for all ages. With over 100 different food stalls, various bars and other amusements you can't complain that there's nothing there for you to do.

In fact being the foodie I am i was in food heaven, indulging on fast food pretty much the whole weekend (not complaining), from burgers, pad thai, pizza, to a pretty tasty chicken jambalaya!

One of the most exciting parts of the whole trip for me was being away with my girlfriends and finally getting to wear our Coachella outfits that we had all planned so meticulously.

With the festival being three full days then we all had to make sure we had three GREAT outfits and so the weeks leading up to the festival we all spent quite a bit of time shopping around the world for the hippest most Coachellary threads. Coachellary is now a word by the way because I must of said this word about a zillion times to my friends.

OUTFITS.

Day 1

Top: 'Sacred hawk' chain mail halter neck metal crop- ASOS, $64.00 worn with a bralet from Forever 21 New York.

Shorts: River Island, UK.

Trainers: Nike Air Force 1 Metallic Rose Gold- Foot Locker UK

Mini backpack: Primark UK

Eye accessories and glitter: ASOS- in your dreams- the mythical collection

Day 2

Dress: Glamorous petite pom pom mirror embroidered swing dress- ASOS.com $58.00

Boots: Topshop UK

Handbag- Primark UK

Earrings- Topshop UK

Day 3

Bikini Top: River Island UK

Necklace- New Look Dubai

Shorts- River Island UK

Bum bag/fanny pack: Forever 21 Dubai

Pom Pom Sandals- River Island UK

So from the photos and my outfit choices you can see how dressing up plays such a big part in Coachella, which I really loved.

DO'S & DONT'S

Do make sure you stay hydrated, the location of the festival is in Indio, California which is in the desert so it gets extremely hot and when you are out in the sun all day and even more so if you are drinking keep sipping on that water. There are water stations all over so hold onto your water bottles.

Do decide on a meeting point withing your group, the girls and I had issues with the wifi and so when we split up we couldn't get in touch with each other as only one of us in the group had data. So make sure you set a time and a place to meet up again after you've gone off and seen whoever or done whatever.

Do try and dress as minimal as possible, i'm not saying go naked- although saying that there were a few sight for sore eyes. I can remember reading an article on Cosmo on day 2 and 'bondage' was a theme that many girls were embracing. What I mean is just be conscious of the fact that it is ridiculously hot and humid and you definitely do not want to be wearing heavy thick clothing.

Do take lots of pictures and videos and get lost in the whole Coachella experience, at the time I thought this is a once in a lifetime thing but now I will definitely be going back. However everyone is different and maybe it will just be a one off for yourself so really get snappy happy.

Do make sure you eat enough. On the first day I made the silly mistake of not eating until much later on and that combined with the heat and quite a bit of alcohol meant I got a little bit drunk a little too fast- oops. I learnt from my mistake and on the second day made sure I held off on the booze until it was much cooler and happily filled my belly a lot earlier on.

Download the Coachella app, we all found this really useful when it came to choosing which acts we wanted to see and provided us with the stage and the time. It also sent you a notification when your favorite acts were due to come on stage.

Do take a jacket with you or something to wrap around you later on in the evening, believe it or not it can get pretty nippy in the desert later on at night.

DONT'S

Don't wear ridiculously uncomfortable shoes, I packed heels however I never actually wore them because I realized after the first day how much walking you do. On top of that if you like to try and push your way through the crowds to get as close as possible to one of your fave dj's in my case Martin Garrix, then believe me you will not want to be getting manhandled, pushed and shoved in a pair of beautiful stilettos.

Don't get ripped off paying festival prices for alcoholic drinks, try as much as possible to pre drink. Where we stayed in Palm Springs there was a liquor store literally opposite our hotel so each day we stocked up on different spirits and mixers from there and made sure we pre drank before we went.

Don't leave it till last minute to buy any merchandise you would like, I ended up missing out on getting anything at all because I had left it too late and all the good stuff had sold out already.

Don't forget to slap on the sun cream if you burn easily, especially if you're out in the sun all day.

Don't say you'll go on the big wheel 'later' or 'tomorrow' just go on it otherwise- again like me you will never go on it *sob*.

Even though we literally only went for the festival and came straight back to Dubai, we had a cute few breakfasts out in Palm Springs and got to see a little more of California along the way. I would recommend staying in the Palm Springs area, it was very clean, there were so many resturants, cafe's, shops etc, and it definitely had that holiday feel to it. The only downside to the location was it was about an hour bus journey to the festival, however it was free so we couldn't complain.