Coachillin

Coachella, Indio, California, April 15th-17th, 2016. The only thing better than going to Coachella is going again (and hopefully again & again). Nothing can ever compare to the first time as is with life, but we decided to up the ante for round two. I knew this year I wanted to go VIP and see what went on inside those white tents that the peasants admire from GA. A shiny new option presented itself the day of the presale. Tickets were sold out, but vacation packages for two (or four) were available. A vacation package includes two GA or VIP tickets, hotel accommodations, and shuttle service to and from the festival. They have it all planned for you, it seemed like the perfect option. Pressured with the quick decision to decide my life 10 months in advance (yes, the Coachella presale is two months after Coachella, and 6 months before the lineup is even announced-crazy, right?), it seemed like a no brainer. Flash forward 10 months, and boy was I happy with the upgrade from last year's motel to the Renaissance Palm Springs. I would go back for the breakfast alone (the upside down apple pancakes-to die for), and the fire pits don't hurt either. While we're talking about food, the cuisine at the festival killed it this year. From the mini s'mores at Mallow Mallow and ice cream filled donut at Afters Ice Cream to the pork belly skillet at Hinterland, new LA hotspot brought to you by non other than himself Mr. Joe Jonas (you can be sure I staked that place out every time I was in VIP to see if Joe was there-thank God I had VIP, that was the only way to get it!), there was such a plethora of delicious food options it was hard to choose (God bless the buffalo cauliflower "hot wings" from Sage Vegan Bistro, they'll have you saying, "I can't believe it's not chicken!") But we're not just here for the food, right? RIGHT?

The funny thing about buying tickets during the presale is that you have not a clue who will be playing the festival. We were blessed with a moderately good lineup, but considering you go to Coachella for the overall experience there's no way you won't have a good time no matter who's playing. The music is an element, but the festival is a lifestyle for the weekend. I by no means consider myself a nature person, but boy do I love laying in the grass listening to M83 and Ellie Goulding at Coachella (there's no bugs, it's 110 degrees-they'll die!) What was better than this year's lineup were the surprise guests everyone brought out. EVERYONE brought someone out, and the acts just kept getting bigger. Halsey surprised us with Brendon Urie, frontman of Panic! At The Disco. The crowd went 0 to 100 real quick when we got to jam out to "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" like we were in high school at Bamboozle instead of in a far away land at Coachella. The biggest surprise was when Calvin Harris brought out Rhianna for the world debut of "This Is What You Came For". Stalking Taylor Swift on the gram all weekend long (no, I was not lucky enough to see her in VIP though I did see her BFF international super model Karlie Kloss), Tay Tay had been seen sporting a varsity jacket (in 100 degree weather?!) with a graphic of lightning striking on the back. Everyone wondered what the significance of this jacket was, especially to be a staple at Taylor's Coachella debut (festival fashion is life). To the world this ended up being a sign of support to her boyfriend at the time, but now they have “Bad Blood” after Taylor accredited herself after previously penning the song under a pseudonym.

Talking about celebrities, where are all the celebrities?! I went all out VIP style in hopes of getting to hang with some cool peeps like I've seen happen to regular people like me when they went VIP. The only person I consistently ran into in VIP was Michael Costello which is not a bad thing by any means, he is my favorite designer and will be designing my wedding dress. In fact, I wanted to tell him that and had many chances to but every time I saw him he looked like he was having so much fun I didn't want to kill his vibe. Once you enter the world of VIP, they are all there just walking around. It's so normal that you don't even want to bother them. I was standing right next to Karlie Kloss and didn't have the heart to break up her girl squad for a picture. My boyfriend used the bathroom next to Derek Hough. And finally on the third day while staking out Hinterland in hopes of seeing Joe, I spotted a fellow Disney alum eating in the grass. Festival queen herself, Vanessa Hudgens (alongside her sister Stella and boyfriend Austin Butler). It was perfect, the VIP by the rose garden was nearly empty at this time of the afternoon and we were eating too. I had it all planned, I would wait until she got up to leave and then follow her for a picture. It was all going according to plan, until I asked her for a picture and she started to ramble, "Well, you know I want to but then it starts a train reaction...and if I take a picture with you and someone else sees, I have to take a picture with them and it becomes this whole thing. I'm just trying to stay low key, you get it. Your sunglasses are dope, where did you get them?" So I clearly wasn't getting a picture, but I had her attention for a minute. "They're Dior" I said, to which she replied, "I wanted the Dior's but none of them looked good on me." "Same! I literally tried them on in every color to try to make it work but they just don't look good on my face so I got these instead." "No, these are classic. Do you mind if I try them on?" The girl who was "trying to stay low key" started taking off her hat and sunglasses for me and my boyfriend to hold while she modeled my Dior's. "How do I look?" she said while smiling cutely at us. "They look great on you!" I mean come on, what else were we going to say? Not that they didn't, they are a classic aviator but would we really have said otherwise? I thought maybe at that point she would take a picture with me, but she simply wished us a good festival and bopped off with her sister into the Coachella sunset. Our interaction was so normal that if anyone had seen us take a picture, they would have just assumed we were friends. It was weird having a normal conversation with someone who consumed so much of my teenage life. Someone I went from hating because she was dating the love of my life, to adoring because I realized she's beautiful and has a killer fashion sense. It was a quick but significant moment, and for sure worth the VIP just when I thought all hope was lost (anything can happen at Coachella). So I didn't get the VIP experience I had anticipated, but from experiencing both sides I am now a Coachella vet that knows exactly what to do the next time. Note to readers: get a good hotel, rent a car but buy VIP parking, fly in on Wednesday if you're coming from a different time zone and go to the cute festival in downtown Palm Springs on the Thursday before! Coachella 2017, I'm ready for that lineup 😉