festivals are annoying in my opinion. in chicago we have pitchfork, (intonation last year), lollapalooza (holy 1992), and various bar sponsored concerts all around the city.

true you can get to all of these places on the train and if you want to leave you can just walk to a local bar, but the amount of money, time, heat (chicago gets hotter than l.a with all our humidity), crowds, outrageous prices and lack of a consistent supply of alcohol unless you want to spend a 100 dollars on cheap beer or mai tais, i reccommend one opt just to stay at home or hit your local pub and play the jukebox.

have a corona and be glad you're home, laist.

Did the same thing. Left at 2 pm - got there at 7 pm - managed to catch most of Jesus & Mary Chain but missed Amy Winehouse.

Truthfully I want to go back but with the hotel prices (yup, I'm a tad out of their age bracket too) has me worried. I'm not about to spend $700 bucks on a 3 day trip to the desert y'know ?

Parking was parking. I had to hike to the outskirts but it wasn't too bad - I wish they had better ways to mark the parking lot. Balloons are nice but I didn't see the number etched on the side when I first walked in.

And yes, the pizza slice price surprised me too but I was so hungry I eagerly paid to gobble down the spicy pizza.

So not sure really what to do for next year yet.

Thanks for the warning Shawn. I'll make sure to skip all festivals except SXSW.

kir,

1. when did i say that i expected the 2 hour drive to be 2 hours? in fact i believe i say i predicted it to be twice that. and why would i assume that? because this wasnt my first trip to the desert for this

2. hotels - most cities have the maximum amount that they will charge for a room posted on the back of their doors and its no more than double what they normally charge. the areas around coachella have decided that ultimate gouging is more up their alley. and if you think that i didnt get sticker shock months before this event, youre doing a bad job of reading my mind, again.

3. food. if one slice of pizza is your idea of "dinner", then no wonder you have no probs defending coachella. some of us consider a slice a snack.

as for Coachella delivering, i never said it didnt. it just comes with a hefty pricetag that most of us in LA don't need to shell out since we already get pretty much everything this festival "delivers" anyways.

now if this were BF Idahoist perhaps i would jump through more hoops and pay the piper, but since this is LAist we have options.

and yes, i understand that lots of people enjoyed themselves and would do it again and again. but at some point they will tap out, and this was our year.

thats a great tip alex!!

Sorry, I misread your time schedule -- you did expect a 4-hour trip, not a 2-hour trip. But 4 still sounds low to me for a Friday afternoon, since you can count on 1-2 hours parking at the site.

There were meals available for $7-8, not just slices of pizza. But who goes there for the food?

Relatively inexpensive hotel/motel rooms were available on Expedia and other travel sites until a few weeks before the show.

Lastly, re: "it just comes with a hefty pricetag that most of us in LA don't need to shell out since we already get pretty much everything this festival 'delivers' anyways": Of course we can [and do] see multiple acts on multiple nights in smaller venues in L.A., and spread out the driving/parking inconvenience, ticket and food costs, etc. But Coachella is a different thing. It's an opportunity to see 6 or more acts in a day, or 12 in 2, or 18 in 3, surrounded by 60,000 people, in one of the most beautiful settings of its kind in the world. It's not either/or. They both have their place.

"It's just a royal pain in the ass to get to, stay at, and afford.

Fortunately we live in a city where we can see these bands any number of times in much more intimate venues that aren't outside in triple digit temperatures."

Yeah, but say you see five of the gazillion coachella bands all separately in smaller venues. You still have to battle evening LA traffic (anyone remember the MESS getting to the Shins/Belle & Sebastian show last summer?), you still have to eat, and you still have to shell out $15-50 for your ticket (depending on the band), PLUS all the extra fees ticket master charges per ticket (usually $10-20).

Book hotels early, leave LA early, rejoice that water is still only $2 a bottle and Coachella is still the best thing about the month of April.

Don't blame a great festival for your lack of common sense. Plenty of info is widely available so you could have prepared for every single one of your complaints. You actually made your cost/benefit ratio worse by bailing out of Sat & Sun but I wouldn't expect you to get that kind of arguement. Before you brag about your number of "stories" and put down other solid sites and publications, you should take a look at the individual quality of what you are posting compared to those outlets. Just stringing together a bunch of YouTube clips is not a "story".

jen,

its "stupid" to think that it will take less than 6 hours to drive 132 miles? maybe in your world, but on the rest of the planet that sort of commute is unacceptable and deserves to be called out.

as for camping parking, yes you can park next to the campground on day 1 but if you ever need to go out for more supplies, water, soap, etc, and move your car you dont get to go back and park it where you first were. i saw more than a few people huffing through the dust with hands filled with bags and suitcases and bottles of water trecking from parking lot 5 to the campground, and that was just on friday, so no not all campers had it so easy.

and kir,

perhaps your Travelocity skills are more refined than mine because i was on that site, and Hotels.com, and on Best Western.com every week for a month in hopes of a sub $300/night room. no dice. which is one reason people were selling reservations to places like Motel 6 on eBay for $100+ simply for the right to pay close to $100 a night, those auctions went along smoothly for the entire month because there were no rooms.

i have no reason to exaggerate about my findings.

Unfortunately, predictable. %640 + lodging, food, booze = around $1500. I am seriously not sure who can afford this. Bulletproof line-up? I am there. This year the line-up was mediocre at best and made this festival not quite worth the hassle, and having been to Coachella 4 times prior, I can say that Coachella is indeed a hassle, at the very best. ©

because the purpose of this blog, and one of the secret little goals of living here for a while is learning how not to spend an arm and a leg on things, how not to get stuck in traffic, and how not have to deal with walking miles from your parking spot. we'll leave that to the college kids from back east.

I went, and had a fantastic time. I had a veggie burrito for $4, and other tasty treats for reasonable prices. You didn't look hard enough. As for the lodging, try condo or vacation home rentals. Get a few people together and you can stay for a third of the price of a hotel, and in higher quality dwellings.

Tony, why do you keep attacking people for simply making you aware of the mistakes you made planning your Coachella trip?

1) Leave early: Just went Saturday so I left Silverlake at 9:30. No traffic at all. Parked in lot 2 right next to the exit (easy to get out after the show). Relatively short walk to the venue (my pat down was equivelent to the pat down at the El Rey or Fonda). Stopped to "scalp" a ticket for $80 (my friend got a Friday for $10). Was inside by 12:30.

2) Food/Water: There were a ton of options for $8 or less. And as many people of mentioned, the prices are equal if not lower than those of dining at other entertainment venues. $2 for water is reasonable. I bought a bottle and filled it for free at the water station throughout the day. Plus they had the exchange 10 empty bottles for a free bottle program that a lot of people seemed to be doing.

3) The Heat: We know. It's hot. Stay in the shade when you can or hang out in the air conditioned movie tent or the KROQ tent. Once the sun goes down, you can enjoy several hours of ideal weather.

4) Lodging: stayed with two others at the Vagabond Inn with two in Palm Springs Saturday night for $99. Booked a few months in advance when there were many options in that price range. Again, as someone mentioned, book a room as soon as you possibly can because you can always cancel. And if you're forced to pay $300, share a room with four people, or, as I did the previous two years, load up on Red Bull and drive back to LA after the show.

With gas/food/lodging/ticket I spent less than $150 and saw a ton of fantastic bands.

I understand festivals aren't for everyone, but for those of us who do enjoy them, Coachella can certainly be an amazing, more or less hassle-free experience.

Festivals are great when you are young and get high and can make out with new, exciting people. You don't care about camping on the floor when you are a 22-year-old with a boner and a hot chick.

For the grown-up concert-goer, it's about money, pre-planning, pacing yourself and access. Call a Hot Springs at least 20 minutes away 4 months ahead of time for 120 bucks a night.

Pick one day that is the best day of the show. Only go for one day. Do whatever you can to get a VIP pass or backstage pass. Pay for that VIP tent. Kill someone in the bathroom and take their wristband. When you are older, you need to stay out of the sun. That big, dusty, shadeless expanse sucks ass. Backstage is nice, with big Winnebagos and even masseuses. It is a different world.

Then do like I did last time - lie and tell a security guard that you are in Sonic Youth and you need a golf cart ride to your car.

Tony,

I have gone to this festival every year and I haven't experienced much of the 'problems' you are complaining about. What's more, I was hard up for cash (even unemployed once) for every year except this year.

I know you half blame yourself for not leaving earlier on Friday, but you really shouldn't have thought it would only take you 4 hrs to make it to the desert from LA. Since my parents live right next to Indio, I know that on ANY Friday night it takes at least 3 hours to drive to the desert from LA. The worst traffic occurs in Pamona and throughout San Bernadino. During peak holiday weekends like Thanksgiving and Labor Day it can easily take 4-5 hours. Now, add to the fact that as you get closer to the desert most people will be going to the EXACT SAME PLACE AS YOU, then the congestion can get really bad once you get close to the freeway off-ramp and make your way into Indio. This really isn't hard to figure out.

As for your issue with food, others have pointed out better/healthier/cheaper options that cost way less than your pizza. Also, it is pretty easy to sneak food inside. I saw people eating homemade sandwiches and I always bring trail mix and Cliff bars so that I can save on food money.

I think your problem with hotel prices has to do with where you are searching. My friends came from Sacramento and stayed at the Travelodge for $89/night. The key is to ignore hotels in Indio, La Quinta and Palm Desert because they are so close to the festival that they have the most incentive to overcharge. Hotels in Palm Springs are usually cheaper (if you book in advance) and only about 15 miles from the festival grounds. Since Palm Springs is the normal tourist area and late April is the beginning of the slow season, they need to keep their rates low to attract normal tourists. My out of town friends have ALWAYS booked in Palm Springs and never payed over $120/night.

I will agree with you that parking could be done better, but this varies from year to year. Last year parking went more smoothly than this year. I think there were less people working the lots than last year. The key is to show up before the late afternoon because the later you show up the further away you will park. Just plan accordingly.

I know festivals of Coachella's magnitude arent for everyone, but I think most of your gripes are the result of your poor planning rather than with the festival itself. If you still think it isn't worth it, than to each his own. I just think you shouldn't complain as if it is Goldenvoice's fault.

I've only been to coachella this once. But I had a sidestage pass which allowed me to like... hang with CSS and others. And... got me to the side of the stage when sonic youth was on which basically made the entire fest.

There were crazy accidents on the 10 I guess. Friends of mine who were bringing gear for peaches almost got there late.

I luckily had some friends who'd already booked a motel in palm springs and splitting it wasn't too bad. Food... well... I just went for eating very little, but there was some indian stuff for like $5 a bowl, which wasn't too exorbitant.

So yeah, if you have a special bracelet it's super fun. I'm just sad I bought tickets in advance, since there were a good number of below list ones being scalped (not to mention the fact that my friends could've gotten me in)

On the bad side, I did get searched and they threw away a really nice pen of mine. Writing on the tents was ruining the coachella experience I guess.

My only suggestions are... get a backstage pass from someone, and hang out there because you can move around way easier between stages and get more shade. And see silly stuff like this:
flickr.com/photos/rseymour/480598225/