It is reported that 90,000 people attended this year’s Coachella Music Festival. That’s a lot of people, all together, in the sun, crowded around, smoking things… As a huge fan of music I can recognize the appeal; this year’s lineup included Outkast, Arcade Fire, Lorde, Queens of the Stone Age, Pharrell Williams, and one of my personal favorites,
Fat Boy Slim, amongst countless others. But now it seems that the festival is about far more than the music. Girls search for their flower headbands and bikini tops to make sure they look sufficiently “free-spirited”, others search for undisclosed paraphernalia, and most seem more concerned with the stigma that now surrounds Coachella than the actual music.
If you’re looking for a great experience without all the fakiness, check out the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. To be sure, the “music festival” atmosphere is not totally eradicated, but the occasional sweaty, middle-aged guy in a tee-shirt that is there to catch one of his favorite jazz combos will be a sight for sore eyes. They’re music festivals, after all.
