English singer Emmy The Great popped her Coachella cherry this year so we made her write about it.In the week leading up to Coachella, I had a sick terrible feeling in my stomach. I don't like going to stuff that I know nothing about, and I hate not knowing what to expect. I prefer being the person who tells people stuff. For example, I am so confident in my knowledge of Glastonbury that I keep a regular checklist of things to bring that I can circulate amongst Glastonbury virgins before the festival. I'm that girl. The idea of going to a brand new festival, in a desert, that I heard was hot as hell and incredibly expensive, was not attractive to me at all. Pathetically, the only thing stronger than my aversion to new experiences is FOMO. So it was that I found myself driving a rental car full of English people from LA to Palm Springs, chasing an experience that could possibly be dreadful, but at least would be the same dreadful experience that other people were having. God forbid someone on my Instagram should post a photo of a line for the porta potty that I didn't have the chance to stand in.So you could call my trip to Coachella a fact-finding mission. And yes, I did learn a lot. I learned a lot about naked human bodies, about celebrities, about myself. I saw some bands. Did I mention naked human bodies? I saw more of those.PALM TREES MAKE EVERYTHING LOOK NICE
Despite this meaning a genuine desert sandstorm on the second day, which then led to Pharrell not being able to use his inflatables and Darkside having to forego a giant mirrorball, the landscape in and around Coachella is truly breathtaking. Most bands seemed to have stepped up their production for the festival, but during the day, the eye always wandered past whatever light show/set design/dance troupe they had prepared and straight to the consistent backdrop of blue sky and palm trees. You know what goes with everything? Blue sky and palm trees.
Here is Blood Orange a.k.a. Dev Hynes' amazing band of friends and lovers, who played on Sunday on the Outdoor stage. Strong color blocking Kindness. We see you in the cobalt blue and black and white.
Seriously, I'm thinking of redecorating my bedroom by moving it to Coachella.THE KNIFE ARE AMAZING
For such a small festival site, the Coachella lineup is jam-packed with quality artists. Be it emerging, huge, heritage, pop, hip-hop, indie, or folk, it’s so varied that Motorhead played and I didn't even notice, and I saw two bands from Nashville play the on same day that Girl Talk performed with Busta Rhymes. Some favorite moments of the weekend came while watching Chance the Rapper and Little Dragon, both of whom came face to face with their growing popularity when they stepped onstage to crowds far bigger than they expected. OutKast (they played, did you hear?) were much better than the reviews would have you believe, and Beck and Arcade Fire were completely brilliant, but by far the best thing I saw all weekend was The Knife's “Shaking the Habitual” show. I'd been reading reports about the show—which takes their whole mask-wearing schtick to insane new levels—but seeing it for myself under a huge black sky was really something else. Seeing it made the entire journey worth making. They're touring the US now. Find them, watch them.
BUTTS ARE IN BY BEING OUT
Hey parents! Check in on your kids now and then okay? While you are going about your weekend in the blind assumption that junior is progressing well over at UCLA, and that the reason he hasn't phoned is because he is studying so very hard for his finals, junior is literally standing butt-to-butt in a field with a young spring breaker whose parents also don't care enough to call. Get in touch. Send them money, so they can buy bigger shorts. Talk to them. Educate. Save the children. Save the shorts. Save my eyes. (If you want to see said butts, Noisey’s Style Editor KTB has pulled together all the underbutt in one convenient place.)
NOT EVERYONE SUCKED AT WEARING CLOTHES
If you blank out all the XXXS denim shorts, Coachella is actually a really interesting place to style stalk, and a place to identify which trends are working and which are on the way out. For example, daisies are definitely having a moment, while hologram shoes and purses, once so ubiquitous, suddenly look dated. Lots of people used the festival as chance to have fun and work a theme. Above is my friend Louise, who manages the band MS MR, and her friend Jennifer, who were channeling Stevie Nicks via the 90s.
This is Katie, a model and ambassador for Toms looking effortlessly summery and cool. She told me she was trying to look like “a dorky 17 year old at her first festival.” Thanks to Katie for directing me to her friend Janelle's Instagram, where I found this photo of Janelle and Katy Perry, DJ Mia Moretti (far left) and artist Cleo Wade all dressed in identical sequined, fly girl inspired tops and skirts.
Dressing like your friend was a welcome trend I noticed at this festival, as these teen girl fairies demonstrated. It was so welcome I ended up forcing my boyfriend to dress like me for the whole weekend, which meant he also had to spend 16 hours a day in my company. Call it a fashion concept, call it a prison, whatever.
Lucy from The Bachelor.
COACHELLA IS FULL OF CELEBRITIES
David Hasselhoff, Melanie Griffiths, every Delevigne. Jeremy Scott walking into the VIP bar with 40 models. Even the bands are filled with celebrities, with Drake, Justin Bieber, Debbie Harry, and Gwen Stefani—just a few of the famous names who were able to pop down to the festival and onstage with their buddies. There were British pop stars lurking round every corner, and one night I got a picture of a girl who turned out to be Lucy from The Bachelor. All these people were mostly crammed into the small space that made up the VIP area, but get this: you can buy VIP tickets, so there were also people who had paid a lot of money to loiter near celebrities. Some of them were running around screaming and asking for photos with people they'd seen on TV. Weird. Very weird. THE REASON WHY COACHELLA IS FULL OF BROS
Much has been written about how this year's Coachella was bro-city, bro, but no one has been able to tell me why. On the Sunday I spotted a couple of dudes wearing Bro-chella headbands, milling around the Outdoor stage during Neutral Milk Hotel, so I decided to find out. I asked them if they which bands they had heard of and what they were excited to see, and they told me they had been to Ellie Goulding, Pharrell, and The 1975. I asked them if they had heard of Arcade Fire, they said no, but they were totally up for finding out who they were. I asked them if they were excited for Calvin Harris, they said yes. From this I deduced that what has happened is that pop has expanded into the alternative world and is bringing its fans along for the ride. This is not a bad thing. These bros were super nice and they let me take multiples of this photo because I wasn't happy with my pose. Also, check out the sweet variations of stripes and tartan in their outfits. A buffet cart of patterns: what's not to like?2014 IS ABOUT PARTYING
Here is the Sahara tent (aka the dance stage) at 3pm on Sunday.
The night before, I witnessed Muse play to probably the smallest crowd I have ever seen a festival headliner play to. The message was clear: the message was RAVE. On Sunday, before Calvin Harris played, there was a complete exodus from all other areas of the festival to the stage where he was set to play. This meant that during his set, I had a lovely cocktail in a completely empty bar towards the back of the site, and was able to use the bathroom without waiting 40 minutes. I would like to lobby for Calvin Harris to be playing three times a day at every festival I attend for the rest of my life.
2014 IS ALSO ALL ABOUT LOVE
Love is very much back in the air, but it's not the hippies so much as the chemical generation last witnessed in the 90s. I saw a lot of dilated pupils and group hugs this weekend, all of which worked in favor of any band whose music had an electronic lean, especially if there were moments in their set where a beat could drop, cos if I learned one thing about Coachella audiences, it's that they like a beat to drop. It was during one of these moments that I saw the below sign. Hope it all worked out for that girl.
… AND CELLPHONES
There was a weird atmosphere before the Neutral Milk Hotel set when they announced that they didn't want any mobile phones used for photos or video during their set. It just seemed out of place in 2014, at a festival where there was a line around one of the sculptures because it was reflective and could be used for selfies. Later on, Jhené Aiko asked her entire audience to lift up their phones, which after sundown does in fact look kind of pretty.SOMEONE ALWAYS HAS A BETTER PASS THAN YOU
Don't fall for it! Wherever you were at the festival, the rumor went that somewhere else was cooler, and—bummer—you didn’t have a pass for said area. Perhaps this is the influence of the culture of hierarchy spilling over from LA and all the celebrity entourages. The truth is there are douchebags everywhere, so just hold tight to your festival buddy and keep having the best time ever. I think that’s what Win Butler was trying to say when he complained about “VIP bullshit” in the middle of the Arcade Fire show.THE BEST PART OF COACHELLA IS NOT ALWAYS COACHELLA
If you can be bothered to drive in and out of the festival, there's lots of fun little events going on, like a mini SXSW, but with raw kale instead of BBQ. Here is Caroline Polachek performing as Ramona Lisa at a party for the Stylebop party.
Here's a picture from Aluna Francis' Twitter. She's chilling at the Lacoste pool party (and she’s one half of AlunaGeorge, btw). It being Palm Springs, there's also like 8000 swimming pools, so, you know, bring a wetsuit.PALM SPRINGS IS WEIRD
Palm Springs is located exactly two hours from the studios in LA, which is how it became established in the early days of Hollywood, as somewhere movie stars and studio execs could honor a contract obligation to be able to start making a movie within two hours notice. As a result, it is an affluent, kitsch, manicured pleasure town in the middle of a desert landscape so brutal that sometimes you make a wrong turn and all you see is sand. It's like Suburbia meets Jurassic Park, meets the Golden Girls. Me and my friends were staying at a holiday home in what was essentially a retirement village which overlooked first a golf course, and then a mountain range. We had a lot of fun getting into the retirement lifestyle.
Here's Matthias, Ludwig, and Olaf recreating the Haim Days Are Gone cover. Ludwig produced Haim and Chance the Rapper so he was
having a g-o-o-d festival watching all his acts become superstars.
Here's Katie and our housemate Serena working the matching friends thing on the golf course, just before an angry golf club representative asked us to leave.This is a new species of bird I discovered, which doesn't fly and looks a bit prehistoric. I'm going to name it “The Coachella 4eva bird.” Catchy.I drank the Kool-Aid! Peace out guys.
Emmy is one of our favorite people on earth. Read more of her work here and follow her on Twitter - @Emmy_The_GreatRelated:The Great Hunt for Desert UnderbuttThe Hottes Alt-Bros at CoachellaWe Crashed Your Coachella PartyCoachella Day One: SPRING BREAK BITCHES!Coachella Day Two: Desert Storm Grilled CheeseCoachella Day Three: Nipples and AssThe Bros of CoachellaThe Basic Bitches' Guide to CoachellaKate Nash: Firsties and Faves Festival SpecialCourtney Barnett: Firsties and Faves Festival Special
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Despite this meaning a genuine desert sandstorm on the second day, which then led to Pharrell not being able to use his inflatables and Darkside having to forego a giant mirrorball, the landscape in and around Coachella is truly breathtaking. Most bands seemed to have stepped up their production for the festival, but during the day, the eye always wandered past whatever light show/set design/dance troupe they had prepared and straight to the consistent backdrop of blue sky and palm trees. You know what goes with everything? Blue sky and palm trees.
For such a small festival site, the Coachella lineup is jam-packed with quality artists. Be it emerging, huge, heritage, pop, hip-hop, indie, or folk, it’s so varied that Motorhead played and I didn't even notice, and I saw two bands from Nashville play the on same day that Girl Talk performed with Busta Rhymes. Some favorite moments of the weekend came while watching Chance the Rapper and Little Dragon, both of whom came face to face with their growing popularity when they stepped onstage to crowds far bigger than they expected. OutKast (they played, did you hear?) were much better than the reviews would have you believe, and Beck and Arcade Fire were completely brilliant, but by far the best thing I saw all weekend was The Knife's “Shaking the Habitual” show. I'd been reading reports about the show—which takes their whole mask-wearing schtick to insane new levels—but seeing it for myself under a huge black sky was really something else. Seeing it made the entire journey worth making. They're touring the US now. Find them, watch them.
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Hey parents! Check in on your kids now and then okay? While you are going about your weekend in the blind assumption that junior is progressing well over at UCLA, and that the reason he hasn't phoned is because he is studying so very hard for his finals, junior is literally standing butt-to-butt in a field with a young spring breaker whose parents also don't care enough to call. Get in touch. Send them money, so they can buy bigger shorts. Talk to them. Educate. Save the children. Save the shorts. Save my eyes. (If you want to see said butts, Noisey’s Style Editor KTB has pulled together all the underbutt in one convenient place.)
If you blank out all the XXXS denim shorts, Coachella is actually a really interesting place to style stalk, and a place to identify which trends are working and which are on the way out. For example, daisies are definitely having a moment, while hologram shoes and purses, once so ubiquitous, suddenly look dated. Lots of people used the festival as chance to have fun and work a theme. Above is my friend Louise, who manages the band MS MR, and her friend Jennifer, who were channeling Stevie Nicks via the 90s.
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David Hasselhoff, Melanie Griffiths, every Delevigne. Jeremy Scott walking into the VIP bar with 40 models. Even the bands are filled with celebrities, with Drake, Justin Bieber, Debbie Harry, and Gwen Stefani—just a few of the famous names who were able to pop down to the festival and onstage with their buddies. There were British pop stars lurking round every corner, and one night I got a picture of a girl who turned out to be Lucy from The Bachelor. All these people were mostly crammed into the small space that made up the VIP area, but get this: you can buy VIP tickets, so there were also people who had paid a lot of money to loiter near celebrities. Some of them were running around screaming and asking for photos with people they'd seen on TV. Weird. Very weird. THE REASON WHY COACHELLA IS FULL OF BROS
Much has been written about how this year's Coachella was bro-city, bro, but no one has been able to tell me why. On the Sunday I spotted a couple of dudes wearing Bro-chella headbands, milling around the Outdoor stage during Neutral Milk Hotel, so I decided to find out. I asked them if they which bands they had heard of and what they were excited to see, and they told me they had been to Ellie Goulding, Pharrell, and The 1975. I asked them if they had heard of Arcade Fire, they said no, but they were totally up for finding out who they were. I asked them if they were excited for Calvin Harris, they said yes. From this I deduced that what has happened is that pop has expanded into the alternative world and is bringing its fans along for the ride. This is not a bad thing. These bros were super nice and they let me take multiples of this photo because I wasn't happy with my pose. Also, check out the sweet variations of stripes and tartan in their outfits. A buffet cart of patterns: what's not to like?
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Here is the Sahara tent (aka the dance stage) at 3pm on Sunday.
Love is very much back in the air, but it's not the hippies so much as the chemical generation last witnessed in the 90s. I saw a lot of dilated pupils and group hugs this weekend, all of which worked in favor of any band whose music had an electronic lean, especially if there were moments in their set where a beat could drop, cos if I learned one thing about Coachella audiences, it's that they like a beat to drop. It was during one of these moments that I saw the below sign. Hope it all worked out for that girl.
There was a weird atmosphere before the Neutral Milk Hotel set when they announced that they didn't want any mobile phones used for photos or video during their set. It just seemed out of place in 2014, at a festival where there was a line around one of the sculptures because it was reflective and could be used for selfies. Later on, Jhené Aiko asked her entire audience to lift up their phones, which after sundown does in fact look kind of pretty.
Advertisement
Don't fall for it! Wherever you were at the festival, the rumor went that somewhere else was cooler, and—bummer—you didn’t have a pass for said area. Perhaps this is the influence of the culture of hierarchy spilling over from LA and all the celebrity entourages. The truth is there are douchebags everywhere, so just hold tight to your festival buddy and keep having the best time ever. I think that’s what Win Butler was trying to say when he complained about “VIP bullshit” in the middle of the Arcade Fire show.THE BEST PART OF COACHELLA IS NOT ALWAYS COACHELLA
If you can be bothered to drive in and out of the festival, there's lots of fun little events going on, like a mini SXSW, but with raw kale instead of BBQ. Here is Caroline Polachek performing as Ramona Lisa at a party for the Stylebop party.
Palm Springs is located exactly two hours from the studios in LA, which is how it became established in the early days of Hollywood, as somewhere movie stars and studio execs could honor a contract obligation to be able to start making a movie within two hours notice. As a result, it is an affluent, kitsch, manicured pleasure town in the middle of a desert landscape so brutal that sometimes you make a wrong turn and all you see is sand. It's like Suburbia meets Jurassic Park, meets the Golden Girls. Me and my friends were staying at a holiday home in what was essentially a retirement village which overlooked first a golf course, and then a mountain range. We had a lot of fun getting into the retirement lifestyle.
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having a g-o-o-d festival watching all his acts become superstars.