That rare, beautiful occasion when the stars align and your job sends you to a music festival you’ve been dying to go to. Coachella is exactly how you’d picture it. People were there just as much for the fashion as they were for the music. Everywhere you turned, people were taking pictures of themselves against the gorgeous palm tree/ferris wheel backdrop. One thing that I didn’t really expect (and didn’t particularly love) was that the festival is basically LA transplanted into the desert for three nights, with VIP, list-only parties in Palm Springs, and the gritty music lovers camping at the actual festival in Indio, California hating on the VIPs but secretly wishing they were part of that crowd.

I so wanted to believe I was a gritty music lover, but let’s be real: I’m not in college anymore, I was staying in Palm Springs and I hadn’t heard of 75% of the bands playing (in my defense, I didn’t pretend to know who they were a la this hilarious Jimmy Kimmel clip).  I was excited about a few bands – Passion Pit, Of Monsters and Men, Local Natives, Vintage Trouble, Lord Huron, Tegan and Sara, Phoenix, The Lumineers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and more. I only got to see the first few because work called and I unexpectedly had to leave the festival early to go on yet another unexpected but pretty cool adventure (post about that later, but you know what I’m talking about if you follow me on Instagram). Regardless, I had a great 1.5 days at Coachella and enjoyed the hell out of it while I was there.

I’ll start with my money shot:

We watched a ton of bands, this photo was taken during Local Natives. I love them and if you haven’t heard of them by now, you will soon.

When you enter the VIP area, it’s like a garden oasis in the desert amidst the chaos of the festival. Once inside, my co-worker and I spent an inappropriate amount of time on this double swing. Classy.

The art of Coachella:

At night, we danced under the stars:

I was sad to leave, but the drive was pretty beautiful.

And I wore my festival arm gear for another day after I left. A minimum of five bracelets per arm is pretty much a Coachella requirement.

The fact that I had to leave this beautiful festival early gave me major FOMO, so upon my return I convinced my friends to come with me next year and plans are already in the works. Stay tuned for more updates from this little Cali trip!