Coachella is notoriously ripe with hookup opportunities. In addition to being submersed in nonstop musical performances, this adult summer camp gives festival-goers a reason to dress in as small and as sparkly of clothing as possible. Not to mention, the average attendee is not entirely sober ~ Mix all of this together, and you get an exciting new experience to have sex with hot new people.
Unfortunately, large music festivals like Coachella have struggled with sexual assault for years. Last year, Teen Vogue did a piece on the widespread sexual harassment that many people experienced at Coachella. Vera Papisova, the author of the article, described how 54 women she interviewed had faced some form of sexual assault or harassment since arriving at Coachella. Papisova herself was groped 22 times during the 10 hours she spent inside the festival working on the story.
Coachella’s leadership was, of course, alerted to this glaring problem, and they responded. This year, in addition to their usual “stay hydrated” and “wear sunblock” signs that have been present for years, were countless signs that read, “Drink Water, Wear SPF, Ask for Consent”.
This is a new establishment for Coachella, for these signs have never been on the grounds before, and there’s a reason for it. This year, Coachella announced its new every one initiative to co-create a festival environment that is “safe, inclusive and fun for all.”
Goldenvoice, the company that operates Coachella, partnered with Veline Mojarro to lead the every one program. In 2018, Mojarro co-founded a woman-of-color-led agency called Shift that provides sexual harassment prevention and diversity training for workspaces. Mojarro played a key role in developing the strategy for every one.
In addition to stating that anyone found to be committing sexual harassment will be promptly removed from the festival and law enforcement may be notified, every one also stationed tents inside the festival grounds staffed with counselors for anyone that may need extra support.
Any place inside the festival displaying the every one logo, pictured below, is a place with either information about the program or people trained in how to handle and combat sexual harassment. So, if you’re headed to Weekend 2, be on the lookout for that sign if you’d like to seek more information or simply take a moment of space for yourself.
Given this, tune in below for some fully consensual (and fully hilarious) Coachella hookup anecdotes we heard this year.
“I personally don’t like hooking up at festivals in general if I’m camping… it gets so gross. If I were at a hotel then maybe it would be a different story, but a lot of people use apps like Grindr and Tinder to hookup with people. Or even to have kind of a “festival bae arrangement”. It’s like friends with benefits but you’re pretending to be in a relationship with a stranger. I did this cause I was literally so desperate for a good shower, that I was down even though I was camping. He was cool. We hooked up, I finessed his nice shower, then I dipped. 10/10.”
“My boyfriend and I were rolling pretty hard and got bored of the set our friends were listening to, so we found the cleanest porta potty we could find and had sex. I know this sounds gross, but I swear we picked a clean one! And my body didn’t touch anything, like, he was the one sitting. It was funny though because you know the porta potties have security officers or something outside of them. And I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to do this, but they knocked on the porta potty door and said we could stay in there together as long as we answered them every time they knocked, so they knew we were safe, LOL.”
“I saw a dude getting head on the Ferris wheel. Then I saw it on Instagram later. Someone had made an account of pictures of people publicly hooking up at the festival. When you’re on that many drugs, you just don’t care!”
There ya have it, folks.