Each day, a different artist headlines and many other up-and-coming performers are also featured. Varied music genres from lightweight pop to heavy metal can be heard throughout the entirety of the festival. Furthermore, beautiful art installations and giant sculptures decorate the desert.

Through the years, Coachella went from almost going bust to being the largest, most famous and most profitable music festival in the whole world. In more recent years, it has been known to attract many famous influencers and Instagram enthousiasts from all over the world. Each year, more and more people feed into this phenomenon with more than 250,000 attendees in 2017, grossing over $114.6 million.

Nonetheless, this festival is even better than you would expect … Long lines, expensive food, sticky weather and sore feet are all part of an ordinary, fun day at Coachella.

Due to the large amount of people at the festival, long queues can be found around every corner. But do not worry … the wait will be worth spending your money on overpriced sandwiches and store-bought lemonade. Oh … and you can bet your life’s savings, you’ll have to pay to empty your bladder. Thankfully, there is a straightforward way to get around this problem. You’ll only need around a million followers and most people will start prioritizing you. Don‘t have the blue verification check on Instagram? Enjoy the festival from the back and the endless lines everywhere.

Another point to keep in mind is the fact that the tickets are extremely expensive. The cheapest cost $450 but keep in mind that this means you’ll be camping 10 miles from the festival. Not to mention that the ticket price will not be your only expense. The average cheapskate will still end up spending upwards of $1000 dollars on tickets, transportation, accommodation and food. Not to say that teepeeing between the sweat lacquered drunk frat bros and the incense-ridden hippies whilst falling asleep to the sound of fighting and vomiting transpired in the belly of some Heineken-brined grass doesn’t sound fantastic, but for over a thousand dollars? Total bargain.

It must be worth it though when an unforgettable experience is promised by the organizers. This experience will however be determined by your social status.

Coachella is somewhat easy to lampoon for its overabundance of free-flowing consumerism and Millennial idealism. It’s easy to portray the music festival as lavish and luxurious filled with nothing but „immaculate vibes“ and „postable pics“ when your whole experience is paid for and the amount of followers you have is reflected by how many different wristbands you’re wearing.

As one fashion critic put it: „Coachella is the perfect example of how capitalism sells us the promise of unforgettable experiences, community and music, all under the guise of participating in capitalism. It is the vehicle, and the destination is ‚fun’.“

Speaking of fashion, the festival is equally known for its distinct style of clothing and „out there“ looks. A lot of people’s oufits are synonymous with boho-chic, free-spirited clothing while others like to showcase more daring and intricate looks. Bright-colored sequins, cowboy boots, skin bearing knitwear, flower crowns … you name it. Each year of Coachella has come with its fashion staple. As well as that, many influencers and celebrities will spend hours on elaborate hair and makeup and spend weeks preparing their outlandish festival looks to post on the internet. Many influencers have stated that they don’t care how unconventional their outfits look, as long as they get people talking about them, that’s all they care about.

If you think about it, it seems that so much time and effort goes into a lot of these frankly atrocious looking outfits for them to only be worn for an Instagram photo. An example of this would be YouTuber James Charles. He worked with a designer to, over the course of a few weeks, create unique looks to show up to the festival in. He however put 2 of them on to take a picture in, outside his house, before changing into more comfortable looking options to actually attend the festival, proving to what extent people will go to get likes on an app.

Last but not least is the fact that Coachella is so great for the environment. The impact from transportation emissions, fuel use, waste, energy intensity and festival site damage might slightly affect the environment but those are only exaggerations, am I right? If you look on the bright side, even though only 20% of waste is being recycled, the festival is really trying their best by offering you a free filled water bottle every time you return 10 empty bottles. Another impact is noise pollution, which can push surrounding animals to flee the area, thus disrupting ecosystems. But you would think the party animals are used to the noise by now? In conclusion, with there being only over 250.000 people, it can’t be that bad.

Overall, Coachella has been ratcheted up in price, thinned down in appearance, sped up climate change and now appears to be a wayfarer adorned runway for summer fashion statements. But who cares. The more you glibly bark about the fun other people are having, the faster you are aged out of culturally relevant functions.