Festival • Photos
beginning at top: People relax underneath “Flock” sculpture
by Micheal Christian, Bloc Party performs
in the desert heat and concert-goers
have a break from music on “Carousel” from
Cyclecide. Brigid McGuire / Online
Forty-Niner
Concert-goers overcome heat, dust for Coachella Festival
By
Brigid McGuire
Online Forty-Niner
Diversions Editor
Every year thousands of concert-goers make the long drive to attend the Coachella
Valley Music and Arts Festival to rock out in the desert heat.
This year the festival was April 29 and 30 at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio,
Calif., in over 90-degree heat.
Sunday was a cloudless day. The sky was actually blue (not like the smog filled
Long Beach air) and the heat was comparable to a sauna with the person sitting
next to you pouring more water over the coals, keeping the heat rising.
The festival was arranged with two outdoor stages and three tents. Each tent
was named after a large desert: Mojave, Gobi and the largest tent, the Sahara.
Coachella is different for every person who attends, because with five stages
and a musical act performing at any given one, you can review what you considered “your
Coachella.”
The first band to hit the Gobi tent Sunday was the British band, the Infadels.
The group had a large crowd response and the Bravery/the Faint feel to them.
Coachella is a great way to hear new music and see artists you probably would
never see live.
Youth Group was the first band to take the Coachella stage (main stage) and
the day began with its mellow rock music. The group had a laid back feel and
many people just sat on the grass and watched.
As I walked through the festival, I came to realize there was much more than
just music and bad sunburns to see. There were also many large art sculptures,
new-age dome installations and a bike rodeo.
The bike rodeo, called Cyclecide, is not new to the festival, but brings something
different every year.
The rodeo consists of many interesting homemade bikes, a bike merry-go-round
and a two-person bike Ferris wheel.
Every few hours a performance would take place and a band would play as the
rodeo clowns did tricks off of their bikes.
Married couple, Mates of State, played the Outdoor Theatre stage and wowed
the audience with its musical talent and simplicity (the group only has drums
and a mass set up of keyboards).
Bloc Party definitely had a larger turnout than this reporter expected and
the crowd sang along with most of the hit songs “Blue Light” and “She’s
Hearing Voices.”
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs took the main stage as the sun went down and Karen O sang
her heart out during “Gold Lion” and dedicated “Maps” to
all of the group’s loves.
The sunset and temperature finally dropped to a bearable climate and also signaled
the end of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2006, for this reporter.
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