This was my second time at Coachella. The second time was surreal for me. My first experience was when my friend had asked me if I wanted to go to this festival that had a host of various d.j’s and bands. I immediately said yes. I actually went on vacation for two weeks from my job and took a temp job during that vacation at Fred Segal’s sale to make the 400.00 that I needed for the whole trip including tickets.  I was always down for a good concert and this one seemed epic. I’ve been a concert goer since 14 years old. From then I was hooked. This particular concert was different and it had a ton of different talent that I couldn’t wait to see. Let’s go back twenty years ago to my first Coachella experience. To be honest I faintly remember it but I had a blast. What I do remember is, it was hot like hell. 119 degrees Fahrenheit in October is still etched in my mind. The heat was brutal and there was no shade anywhere. Actually the tents were your shade. But once you were in the tents it was a steam room filled with sweaty people. Another thing I remember was the line up was impressive. The question was how could I possibly see twenty plus acts? I had to miss some and overlap others. Nothing has changed there but having the show in April is so pleasant.

Twenty years later I’m back. My first day I was a little shocked. It’s the Disneyland of music. It was much bigger then my first experience. I clocked 22 miles walking in 3 days. It was definitely a mini workout. Parking was a mile from the entrance but we took pedicabs for 10.00 per person. That made it 20.00 a day, except Sunday. Sunday was more. I’ll get to that later. We ventured out and mapped that place from every corner. We had downloaded the Coachella app earlier so were able to  schedule the music we wanted to see. This helped us stay on schedule and we got to see most of the acts that we plugged in.

Before the festival I decided to listen to every single person that played and picked a few I wanted to check out that I have never heard of. The first act that I got to see was SG Lewis. This 23 year old Brit producer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalists had the tent at full capacity. I was amazed at this young talent and enjoyed the entire show. Great electro chill type tempo. Ella Mai has such and  amazing voice. She was one of the many I was interested in seeing. Her voice is clear and smooth. Her style of music is melodic and hip. Up next on the list of must see was Anderson Paak. He is such a multi talented great performer. This was definitely a show. Not only was he energetic, his voice and musical talents have you on your feet. I couldn’t stop dancing. While waiting for another show to get started I stumbled upon The 1975. Ok love love love. They remind me of a modern 70’s groove. This takes me back a little. The blew me out of the water. Amazing performance.

Day two for me got even better. We were sitting down to eat in front of the Gobi tent while Jain was performing. This was happenstance. I was like, who is this? This chick is dope. I just found a new artist. She was great and she got the audience going. I even got up from where I was eating and followed the crowd.  Billie Eilish for such a young age, was incredible. I was blown away by her and she got the crowd jumping.

Day three, well what can I say about day three? Thank you Kanye for the best show of the weekend. Even though we had to get up so early from a late night and it took 3 Pedicabs to get there which cost 30.00 and another 10.00 to get back, it was really worth it. It never really felt like 2 hours. The gospel choir sounded heavenly. The voices were so angelic. I was afraid that Kanye wasn’t going to come out. It was almost an hour later but he showed and it was fantastic. Thank you for the gospel house music at a music festival. This was creative genius at it’s best. Even though Kanye can be controversial, he is a musical genius y’all. But for all the money to get to the show from the parking lot, there was a big win in the end and it was the 50.00 I found on the ground. Sorry for the person who lost it. Thanks for the pedicab cash for the way back which only cost 10.00 this time, because we walked partly back to the car. From waking early we decided to head back to the hotel for brunch and a nap before heading back to catch Dennis Lloyd. Thank you Dennis for your sultry amazing voice. His voice is similar to the likes of Adam Levine, amazing. I’ve been wanting to catch this guy live for awhile. I’m glad I did.  Next up was Lizzo. I have never heard of her except the day when I was discovering talent from the line up. I remember putting her on the list. Lizzo is one of my highlights of the festival. She has the energy of 10 people. The show was incredible and I love how she embraces her beauty and body. She had the crowd on their toes. I thought to myself this is what Coachella is all about, finding new music and enjoying amazing shows.

As a photographer I barely took any photos just a few night shots. Why? Everybody is taking the same shots. Selfie seekers everywhere. Some people were so consumed with the selfie shot I wonder if they saw any shows. That was the turn off. So instead I thought I would take bad videos to remember it lol. When I look at them I feel like I’m there again. I can’t wait to see next years lineup. For more pics and videos go here.