I SURVIVED COACHELLA 2011!

Coachella aka. Hipster Universe aka. there are randomly a lot of Australians and Canadians here!

So here's the rundown of my top favorite shows... I recorded a bunch of videos and if you could see them, Arcade Fire definitely takes the cake in live performances! Not to mention, you can probably see glimpses of Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger in my video because I was standing right next to them (they would not stop making out)! But the video is gonna take too long to load so... go to an Arcade Fire show!!! :]

These were, hands down, the best bands we saw:

Arcade Fire

The Strokes

The Black Keys
Cold War Kids

Mumford & Sons

Kanye West

Kings of Leon

The Swell Season

Lauryn Hill (who was surprisingly really good live! guys, you know you better... WATCH OUT... that thing that thing that thiiiiiiing)

And the not so good ones... well you can read about those online (like how Ceelo Green was huffing and puffing after 3 songs and they basically cut him off after the 4th, and how every single song by Wiz Kalifa is about weed and rolling papers). We basically watched 10-11 hours of concerts each day, half of it in the sweltering heat, but when the music starts you almost forget that you're about to fall over from being so tired of dancing!

Here's a pic of a small section of Coachella... there were 5 stages playing music at all times, starting from 12pm everyday, until 1am. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the giant rows of port-a-potties, since I know everyone is dying to know how that looks like!

Sometimes we were close to the stage, sometimes we were SUPER close. Even if it took FOREVER and we were in high-risk suffocation locations! I honestly don't even remember who this picture is of, since we saw so many bands!

Coachella reminds me of when I did Dance Marathon in my sophomore year at UCLA. When I first purchased the ticket/signed up for Dance Marathon, there's was a sense of euphoria... I cant believe I'm actually doing it, I'M GONNA ROCK IT!!!!

Then as the day of the event draws nearer and you start to mentally prepare, your high hits a peak, but in the back of your mind, there's a tiny sense of dread. The idea of stinky, disgusting port a potties and not showering for 3 days followed by intense 100 degree sun exposure, sleeping in a car/tent, eating in your car, changing in your tent, brushing your teeth by your car, being covered in dirt and basically living out of your car for the next couple days... Not the most fun thing to look forward to.

And when you're at your 8th concert of the day(or 13th hour at Dance Marathon) and have been standing and dancing for 9 hours straight, being bumped by people who are just as sweaty and grimy you think to yourself... WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS?!??

And yet it's an S&M relationship that you just can't get enough of! when Arcade Fire is blasting in your ears and a billion glowing bouncy balls fall from the top of the stage, or you finally hear The Swell Season perform "falling slowly" when you've been waitin 3 years to see them live, or when the flashing lights from Mumford & Sons makes you feel like you're actually high without smoking anything, and when the entire audience is screaming "YOUUUU, your sex is on fiiiire!!!!" to Kings of Leon, or when The Strokes perform mindblowing songs for 90 minutes straight, you remember why you decided to do something so crazy! And even though your legs feel like jelly and you have 3 days worth of sunblock, mud, dirt, and sweat on you, as well as the sweat, sunblock, B.O. and who knows what else that rubbed off from everyone else, it doesn't matter because the euphoria that comes with the music is just so freakin indescribably amazing!

I am actually kind of in love with the whole idea of it all. Bringing a carload of food and alcohol and camping out with your friends and other ppl who love music just as much as you do, chilling out and listening to good beats all day, they even have a small farmers market on site! not a stress in mind except which band you are seeing next! or I guess whether or not it would feel better to keep standing at the moment or chop your legs off...

I would do it again... if there is a lineup worth doing this for! I'm pretty sure I'm still high from inhaling 3 days worth of second-hand weed. By then, I will be a seasoned coachella go-er, and will know all the secrets to making it the best camp experience ever (bring spritzers, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, mini fan, and ok... probably get a hotel room)!

Go next year! :D