coachella: the music

Coachella: The Music. The reason people from all over the world [seriously everyone had an accent] come to this sweaty nest in the middle of the desert they call Indio. Though it's really pretty impossible to recap "The Coachella Experience" because it's one of those "you had to be there" kind of events, in a nut shell, it was well worth the $350 ticket. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were [for obviously reasons] the performance by far in my opinion. They rapped songs that chronicled my childhood and I absolutely lost it. Among others, I saw the following artists and they all [no pun intended] rocked:

Madeon

Arctic Monkeys

Afrojack

The Black Keys

Explosions in the Sky

Mt. Eden

Noel Gallagher

The Shins

Miike Snow

Bon Iver

Alf Alpha

Santigold

Justice

Girl Talk

Calvin Harris

Florence + the Machine

DR. DRE AND SNOOP DOGG [and Eminem and Wiz Khalifa and 50 Cent and Tupac kinda]

coachella by day

coachella by night

madeon was amazing

santigold killed it

my main man, dre

oh hey tupac!

Sadly, my photos are not that great due to excessive jumping/rapping/screaming/hair whipping... but hopefully you get the picture!

{Homemade pizza and crust for dinner! Get ready for some feastly photos.}

coachella: the food

You're probably wondering how it's possible that I haven't discussed the music aspect of Coachella yet...  I'll  get there... I promise! My last Coachella experience involved a weekend diet of beer, goldfish and miscellaneous junk food found around the festival. This year, I was determined to find the goods. And by goods I mean food trucks.

The Lime Truck, winner of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, was serving up their awesome California-inspired cuisine and I [guilty] ate there everyday. Oops! I tried the short rib quesadilla, the short rib fries, a potato taco and bok choy salad and it was all absolutely incredible. Then, I got really lucky and had the chance to meet Daniel, the founder/owner of the truck [that's him in the plaid]. He gave us free limeades [again, SO GOOD] and chatted with us about his success. Daniel also told us that soon, The Lime Truck will have their own sit-down restaurant! Clearly I’ll be making a visit. Great guy, great truck, GREAT food.

Next, we tried Manglers Meltdown, a food truck dedicated to all sorts of different “melts.” From Philly cheese steaks to turkey melts to grilled cheese (WITH MOZZARELLA STICKS MELTED INSIDE), this truck is probably a heart attack waiting to happen but nonetheless it was an absolute feast. 

Finally, we tried Cosmic American Voo Doo Van, a San Francisco-based food truck specializing in American food. Since I was pretty much disgusted with myself at this point from all of the [terribly] fattening food I’d been eating, I only [HA] got a side of JuJu Balls… essentially fried mashed potatoes with chives and cream cheese and served with pickled onions and an amazing aioli sauce. Oink.

{Who knew Coachella food was so dang delicious?}

coachella: the crafts

Coachella. Arguably one of the best music festivals of our generation. People from all over the world [literally] flock to Indio, California [read: the blistering hot desert] in April to experience one of the best weekends...ever. From Paul McCartney to Snoop Dogg... Coachella has had musical guests of every kind. My friends and I went back in 2010, camped [ugh], saw some of our favorite artists and had a damn good time. This year, similar to our last Coachella weekend, we sweated and sweated and sweated [did I mention it's usually well over 105 degrees?]. We raced from tent to tent to see our favorite musicians in action. We mingled with the Coachella folk [from hipsters to bros and everything in between]. And we discovered... The Coachella Art Studio aka... Craft-Chella... aka... my heaven. Once discovered, I spent several hours in this tent taking full advantage of the free [ish] craft supplies. Needless to say, this tent definitely rivaled the actual music... almost.

here are some of my creations: buttons and a zine*

*I'm still not entirely sure what a zine is... but I'm pretty proud of mine. If you want to read the whole thing [warning: some parts are PG-13] email me and I'll send ya a copy!

{Don't worry. This is just the beginning. More Coachella posts to follow!}