No yoga today, I was feeling seedy and slept in until 8:30am, when it was too hot to stay in the van anymore. Kaila was already off in the hair line and Megan and Andrew hadn’t appeared out of their tent so I had camp to myself. After a trip to the freshly cleaned portaloos, I got straight into having a cold shower, mostly to clean myself but also to cool myself down from the early morning heat. When Megan woke up, she was off to meet Kaila in the hair line having received a report from her that it wasn’t too bad this morning. Still way too much time to invest in hair if you ask me! Andrew eventually arose while I was making breakfast. I made bacon, egg and avocado bagels for me and Kaila and after eating mine, I went off to deliver hers.

I found the girls near the front of the queue, waiting in the full sun for their hair styling. Kaila was happy to receive her bagel. Not wanting anything to do with the queuing and having not applied sunscreen yet, I didn’t stick around. I got my ID tag for the day, filled up two water bottles at the water station and walked back to camp, managing to drop only one bottle once along the way.

For the rest of the morning it was just Andrew and me at camp. I blogged while he got himself high. I think I had the most productive Coachella out of anyone. When the girls returned, Megan had glitter in her hair and Kaila had curls. When they both did their makeup and got dressed for the day at the festival, I got FOMO to see they were both in dresses and I’d planned to wear the same thing I had the last two days. Kindly, Kaila offered me her Coachella “staple” dress, a light dress she always brings to the festival to wear in any condition. For the day, it was mine. It fit perfectly and seemed the sppropriate length for festival going (a bit short).

After starting our drinking for the day just after noon, we were joined by Sunny and his mate, Sunny being a friend of Kaila’s from work. I didn’t recognise him at first, but once he took his sunglasses off I remembered going up to his desk many a time with queries. They cracked a couple of beers, pulled up a patch of grass to sit on and we all got to chatting. They complemented us on our very tidy campsite and we swapped festival stories. After one round, they were off and into the festival. We weren’t in such a hurry, needing only to see our first band after 3pm so we got a few more drinks in. Someone had the bright idea to walk into the hub and buy a round of freshly made lemonade to go with some vodka. By the time that was arranged and Andrew came back to camp with four lemonades in hand, we were ready to head on in. Taking our vodka lemonades for the road, we stood in the line for the longest time yet, but we made friends in the queue, discussing tactics for sneaking in contraband like alcohol.

Once in, we went straight to the Mojave stage to see Sofi Tukker, a must see from Kaila’s point of view. I was drunk and happy so would have followed her to the end of the earth at that point so off we went. We were a little early, so stood up front awaiting the band. The crowd packed in once they got going and it grew throughout the set. Quite literally, I think we jumped around for the whole 45 minute set with hardly a break between songs. The two-piece band were genuinely humble about the crowd before them, saying that they hadn’t been sure if anyone would show up but instead they were surprised by a huge turnout. We went wild when they invited Jamie XX onto the stage who honestly didn’t seem to contribute much except for a bit of jumping around but he got the crowd excited all the same. We meandered out of the stage along with the rest of the crowd once it was all over, me trying to remember how to walk steadily after all that jumping around.

As soon as we were out of the tent, I was feeling woozy so proclaimed that I needed food. We both immediately thought of pizza and so off I went into the beer garden while Kaila went and found a shady spot in front of the Outdoor stage. At the beer garden entrance they made a fuss about my wristband being on the wrong wrist and that the people that had given me my wristband in the morning must have stuffed up. Not having my ID on me (which is the whole point of having a wristband), I couldn’t get another. Pissed off, I wandered around outside the beer garden and worked my wristband off my wrist so I could transfer it to my left wrist where it was apparently supposed to be. With that done, despite the crumpled up band, they let me in. Straight to the pizza vendor and there was no line so I had two hot slices in my hand within minutes. Not bad for $6 a piece (by festival standards anyway).

I found Kaila out on the grass and we happily munched away at some solid food as I remembered that we’d completely forgotten about lunch. It was much needed sustenance and it went down well. I probably could have eaten another four of them. The vodka and beers that I’d had in the morning hit me about now. I was feeling very queasy and not in the mood for anything but recovery so, I lay down on my back and tried to make the bad feelings go away. I couldn’t tell you anything about Devendra Banhart who played on the stage around now because I slept through the whole hour set. When Kaila gently woke me for Grouplove, which was on at the main stage, I explained that I didn’t feel up to moving in my current state and, bless her, she stayed with me. I continued my napping on the soft grass, coming in and out of consciousness as Future Islands DJ’d a set on stage.

Finally, two and a half hours after I’d laid myself down, I felt recovered to the point where I could drink some water and walk to another stage. I felt like I had a lucky escape, avoiding a yak by inches. Lesson learnt. After a bit of contemplation, we decided that we weren’t going anywhere, we would continue our hang out on the grass until Hans Zimmer started his set. We could hear music floating in from the other stages so that served as our entertainment, along with gentle conversation about never drinking again.

Hans Zimmer is a composer famous for creating the music from many famous movies of all genres. We, like many other people, were curious to see how that would translate to a festival stage. A full orchestra, they got right into a procession that sounded familiar but something we couldn’t quite pinpoint. Two thirds in, it became very obvious, it was from Pirates of the Caribbean. The song ended and we went wild to hear the sunrise song from The Lion King and singers on stage to play out the song. The music was so uplifting, orchestral stuff sends shivers down my spine every time. Between songs, Hans would speak to the crowd and he was playing an instrument and being somewhat of a conductor throughout the set. While the music was great, the show didn’t really work that well. There was no visuals of any band members at all so we couldn’t really see what was going on.

We left a couple of songs from the end, finally vacating the patch of grass that had been our home for the last four hours. Kaila had a bathroom break before we wandered over to the main stage to catch a bit of Lorde. It was the perfect night at Coachella with a light cool breeze, but nothing to make us feel cold in our summer dresses. Lorde was a bit meh, she was just dancing around a bit singing, but we couldn’t see any of the band, it was a bit of a waste of stage. The music isn’t so uplifting or upbeat either so a bit of a drag. We sat down for a bit, then went back over to our favourite spot at Outdoor to get ourselves geared up for Justice.

After sitting around for the majority of the afternoon, it was hard to get in the mindset to jump around for a DJ, but we were here and we were gonna dance. They were on stage just before 10pm, got right into it and didn’t stop. We danced and moved, but at nowhere near the intensity of our first set of the day. The show was an absolute assault on the senses, it was so much more than just music. The lighting was ridiculous with huge boxes that moved into different positions within the framework and each song had a completely different theme. The preparation that must go in to something like that is beyond me. I’m not the biggest Justice fan, to me everything sounds the same after a while and this happened about halfway through the set so I told Kaila I was gonna bail. She wasn’t going anywhere so we planned to meet back at camp.

I tread as gently as I could through the people sitting in front of the main stage waiting for Kendrick Lamar to come on and blow their minds. I contemplated staying around to watch a bit of it but decided it really wasn’t worth my time considering how much of a fan I am not. I was tired, Coachella had beaten me after three days. I walked underneath the ferris wheel for the last time and said goodbye to what has been a crazy, interesting experience.

Coachella is a place of harsh conditions. It is a dustbowl of aggressive heat during the day with cold winds that blow at night. The music from every stage is loud, the crowds insane at places like the Sahara stage but everyone is there to have fun. While it’s mostly “teenie-boppers” wearing clothes that look like they have pieces missing, Coachella is a place to be among music fans. We were lucky to have great camp mates that made our weekend and we all managed to stay out of trouble. Everything Kaila told me about this place was true and everything she warned me would happen did happen. I followed her every advice and because of it, I had a great time and never felt like I was in any trouble. To have a friend that will sit by your side while you pass out on the grass having drunk too much is a special someone.

I got back to camp and made myself a quick dinner before going to bed. I could hear Kendrick Lamar shouting at his microphone from where I slept but I didn’t have any gripes about it. I was asleep by the time Kaila returned. She woke me gently when she couldn’t get into the back of the van and we wished each other a good night before she retreated into her tent. Goodnight Coachella.