10 things we learned at Coachella 2012
- By Hazel Sheffield -
- Apr 18, 2012
After a monumental weekend at one of the world's best music festivals, here are 10 things we learned at Coachella...
10. Even the desert has drizzly days
The problem with packing for a festival in the desert is that you don’t plan on two days of high winds and rain. Some people coped with the unfortunate conditions better than others. As for the girls who kept up the festival uniform of denim cutoffs and bikini tops regardless: brave.
9. Drinking in a pen is no fun
To get into Coachella, you have to queue for two bag checks and two not-so-kinky frisks. Then when you get in, you are only allowed to drink alcohol in special drinking enclosures, fenced in by chicken wire. Truly, this is no fun.
8. The V.I.P. area is like a casting for America’s Next Top Model
They must send all the modeling agencies a packet of wristbands or something, because there were a lot of leggy giraffes in the leafy V.I.P. section who looked like they wouldn’t know Jeff Mangum from a Magnum ice-cream. Only in L.A.
7. Coachella’s Sahara Tent is not for the faint-hearted
Despite all the frisking there were a lot of space cadets with hours of stamina raving it up in the Sahara tent. For every indie rock fan, Coachella hosted three under-21s covered in fluorescent paint and glowsticks with a penchant for relentless bass.
6. The British Invasion is still going strong
Plenty of Brits stumped up the airfare to see one of the strongest British line-ups this side of Somerset. Arctic Monkeys pulled a huge crowd on the main stage and Metronomy killed it on Sunday. Not to mention performances by The Horrors, Florence and the Machine, Pulp, Madness, Radiohead, Laura Marling, Wild Beasts and more.
5. Special guests were everywhere
From Rihanna showing up during Calvin Harris’s set to Usher joining David Guetta on Saturday, Coachella was full of surprise appearances. Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg proved more is more in their Sunday headline slot, which featured Wiz Khalifa, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.
4. There are men who know all the words to Florence and the Machine
And they didn’t care who noticed during Florence Welch’s storming Sunday set when ‘Dog Days’, ‘Rabbit Heart’ and ‘Shake It Out’ left many fans in tears. We could have put money on Flo breaking America, but who knew she could provoke such emotion?
3. Jeff Mangum has still got it
The cult Neutral Milk Hotel frontman performed on a chair in the middle of the stage, his voice undiminished by a decade of near-silence. The reverence of the west coast crowd was something to behold.
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that all music lovers know ‘Tiny Dancer’ by heart
Most people at Coachella don’t camp – they get a shuttle bus to a cheap hotel somewhere in Palm Springs. On the Saturday, ‘Tiny Dancer’ came on the radio in our bus and EVERYONE broke into song. At 2am, our poor driver was stood in a carpark, waiting for Elton to finish so we would get off the bus.
1. In the future, all concerts will be performed by holograms and musicians will get old and fat without worrying about touring
You know this already by now, but here’s betting you haven’t quite got over the creepiness of Tupac Shakur ‘performing’ with Dre and Snoop, 15 years after he was shot dead. Maybe in the future all musicians will be saved the hassle of touring into the grave and can just beam a younger version of themselves into gigs instead.
Read our Coachella reviews day one, day two and day three.
Photos by Hazel Sheffield.
By Hazel Sheffield. Blogs at HazelSheffield and tweets at @hazelsheffield
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