Coachella 21-25th Apr 2016

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We abandoned the idea of getting to Palm Springs the day before and got up at 6am instead! Managed to get hugh out the door and on the road by 7.45amn and off we set! 2 hours in and we both need the loo so we stop at a gas station and i go and ask if they have a bathroom. The girls behind the counter think I have a really cute accent and says shouldn't you ask for the loo! We chat for a bit and she loves getting me to say things. Have a few problems getting the petrol pump to work! Our UK cards don't work in the machine, so you have to go inside and pay and then fill up, but we have no idea how much to put in and so we put $45 in and the pump stops at $35! So you then have to go back in and tell them and they refund it.

Get back in car and drive for another hour and finally we reach Indio around 12.30. We have to go and get our tickets at the box office as I didn't want them going missing in the post! Pick up wristbands and a lovely little memorial box with lots of little gifts in it. We get a calendar, stickers for the car, a full guidebook, and a little box you can put your phone in and make pictures with. Not tried it out yet because we needed an ap and we didn't have internet in the camp site!

So we set of again, this time for the Coachella camp site. It's only 10 mins away and fully signposted so easy peasy! You have to join a queue and they go through your car for contraband! There's a whole list of things you can not take into the campsite, guns or knives mainly!! but I have researched the rules for Coachella till I'm sick of it! lol, but it means we are very well prepared. Ie, things like a gazebo (or easyup as the Americans call it!) are just essential for keeping the sun off you during the day. It's even too hot for me to sit out in the sun! And blankets for the night time as it is freezing! The only thing I got wrong was the airbed. You'd think a twin would be a single right? Seeing as the others were full, queen and king. But no, apparently, the full is the uk equivalent of a double! So, we now have a single air mattress between us! Cosy! But it's fine, we managed.

We follow the line of cars and get assigned our camping spot, one of the great things is that they mark out the ground with your spot and you get to park your car there too, no parking miles away and walking with all your stuff. It also meant we could leave valuables like the laptops in the car locked away and not worry about leaving them.

There are 3 guy on one side of us and they introduce themselves as Matt, Jeff & Mark. They are brothers from San Fran. The 2 guys on the other side of us are Kyle and Jessey, Canadians from Vancouver. I tell them my Goddaughter is moving to there and they are happy to help her out a bit!

So we unpack and then sit and chat. We teach them a bit of cockney rhyming slang and Hugh nicknames them Mutton Jeff, Door Matt and Mike Hunt. Kyle gets the nickname Wreck-it Ralph over the weekend as he keeps breaking things! Including a rubber mallet! Apparently he was just malleting and it fell apart! We play beer pong and just generally hang out. We meet other groups to. Next to Jessey & Kyle are Richard and Hannah. and behind them are Carley & Ashley and behind the boys are Jenny & Darton. We all get along really well and sit around most mornings chatting. We took group photos and the girls and guys made pyramids! A new one for Hugh and I!

The camp ground has a camping centre and this has lots of shops, food vendors, a post office and various activities, including silent disco as the music goes off at 1am and camp music has to be turned off at 1.30am, but the camp centre goes on a bit longer in smaller areas.

Couple of annoying things, you are not allowed to take any food or drink into the actually music grounds, even water. You can take an empty bottle in, but then you have to queue with thousands of others at the water stations. I also got stopped taking a water cooler in because it was an aerosol and drinks were extortionate! $10 each for whatever you had. So the smallest glass of wine in the world was 10 bucks! To buy drinks you have to queue up and get ID checked and get a special wristband and this has to be done daily! We also had to re-register our wristbands every day because it wasn't until the last day that we found out you have to log into the festival site and log out again or it thinks you are still in there or have given your wristband to someone else! They are obsessed! And you can only drink in special areas beside the stages, you can't take drinks in to watch the music! They have 6 sound stages, a DJ stage and they also had a new soundsystem for you to go look at called Despacio, but neither of us were very impressed with the soundsystem, preferring the other systems!

so Friday we saw DJ Mustard which was in one of the smaller tents and absolutely packed out! He definitely needs a bigger spot next year! Lord Huron, Underworld (Hugh's favourite of the weekend!), Last Shadow Puppets, Ellie Goulding and LCD Soundsystem.

Saturday we saw Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ice Cube who also bought out Dr Dre and my favourite! Guns n Roses!! OMG! Axl and Slash killed it! They were so good, I absolutely loved seeing them both together. Duffy was there to. Very unusual set with songs I hadn't heard or didn't remember! But then they got onto the hits and just blew me away. Loved it and so glad I got to see Axl and Slash together.

Sundays lineup saw us going to see The 1975, John Digweed, Major Lazer, Sia & Calvin Harris.

All in all, a really great weekend and we loved it. We will be taking away some amazing memories and have met some amazing people. But onto the next adventure! We stopped at Joshua Tree National Park.

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Comments

[Terry]

Trippy!! Were you really there or was it all a dream!!??? Love this look hun!! xxx

[Rev.Terry]

Fabbo!!
Love reading your fun at Coachella. Think the drinking stuff is ridiculous!! What a pain!! Hope Hugh is being a good boy!! Looks like he is!! xxx

[Model Hunter]

Good Group!!
Looks hot mmmmmm