Last weekend, I entered Coachella with absolutely zero preparations or knowledge about how it worked and what I would need. Though, it actually didn’t go as bad as I had imagined. That being said, here are some top tips to get through both car camping and the music festival itself.Â
Arriving
I’m not sure if there’s actually a good time to get there. From what I heard, everyone had to wait at least four hours to get into the lot. We left UCLA at 4pm on Thursday, got to the line at 9:30pm and waited in line to get into the lot until 2am. However, even my friends that left at noon did not get to their camping spot until 1am. So, I think that the time we left was definitely ideal. It was a little bit more traffic but less time waiting in line.
Setup
On TikTok, you’ve probably seen all of the elaborate camping setups people bring. Let me tell you, that’s not worth it at all. It is SO hot on the campgrounds that you’re going to want to spend the least amount of time there as possible. So we brought a tent to sleep in and a couple of beach towels and that was it. You can go to the camping hub to hangout and the festival opens at 1pm – both options that are much cooler than just sitting by your car. It also makes setup and take down so much easier when you keep it simple. We also didn’t bring a portable shower, but the shower lines were so long we didn’t actually shower at all. Instead, we put our bathing suits on and poured our gallon jugs on our heads and soaped and shampooed this way. It was very easy and effective, and water refills are free and plentiful.Â
Food
Food at the festival is obviously very expensive, so we brought all of our food from home. We had two coolers that we filled with ice on the way, because ice at the campsite is $20 per bag. This kept our food pretty much fully cool the whole weekend, and we supplemented most perishables with bagged tuna, meat sticks and snacks anyway. The only thing we actually kept cold was lunch meat, bread and jam. I would say two coolers is more than enough and we actually ended up bringing way too much food. You can bring all the food you want to into the festival too, so you don’t even have to buy it there.Â
Supplies
Two things you absolutely need to bring: a beach towel and a spray bottle / fan. These were the MVP’s of the weekend. Again, it is SO HOT during the day that we were CONSTANTLY spraying ourselves with the spray bottle. This was just a $10 purchase we happened to grab at the Ralph’s in Westwood. The other MVP was my sandcloud that I brought into the festival all three days. This way you can just pop a squat whenever you want to sit, and trust me your feet are going to need these breaks. Bring a pashmina or bandana to cover your nose from the dust. BONUS: bring your bathing suit. That’s what we wore around camp all three days and the only other clothes you need besides your festival fits.Â
Leaving
We planned to leave after Post Malone performed on Sunday so we could get home in time to sleep in our own beds before the week started. However, we had NO idea that the car camping lots are locked between 9pm and 2am for safety reasons. Thank GOD our camping neighbor told us, because if not we would have been stuck in the lot until two, when we were already far on our way home. What you have to do is pack everything up and leave the camping lot before you go into the festival on day 3. Then, you can park in general day parking (for free!!!) which is a little farther of a walk into the grounds but is so worth it. We were out of the lot by midnight and made it back to UCLA around 3am.Â
Without these tips, Coachella can be BRUTAL, but there isn’t all that much preparation you need. Keep it simple, stick to the basics, and HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!