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The line-up is the same, but Weekend 2 is a different beast at Coachella. The scenesters and celebs tend to do their thing on Weekend 1 before the rest of the outside is burned out from hearing about the music-cum-fashion fest in the desert. By the time Weekend 2 rolls around there are fewer surprises and less hype, but, hey, if you're there for the music, that's not such a bad thing. Here are a few last-minute tips.
Check out some of the favorites from last weekend. We came up with a list of under-the-radar acts ahead of last weekend that we stand by. If you're feeling nostalgic about the old Coachella fest, check out the Beck show. Disclosure and Arcade Fire are great reasons for you to call in sick on Monday. OutKast's reunion wasn't perfect and it lagged in some places, but we know you're going to see them anyway. We love Solange even without the guarantee of an appearance from Queen Bey. Calvin Harris got the masses moving from the VIP section to the beer gardens. Lorde commanded the stage, and Lana Del Rey proved she'd come a long way since SNL. Motorhead got the metalheads going. We'd recommend The Knife and Future Islands, too.
If you're going to go to The Replacements show, make sure that you know all the words and can sing very loud. Millennials, who rule the festival, weren't around for The Replacements' heyday and, well, they didn't really show up to the show either. Paul Westerberg made a game of asking the sparse crowd to sing the lyrics and then would get pissy when—surprise!—the thin crowd of die-hards wasn't loud enough. Maybe we shouldn't have been shocked that The Replacements didn't give a shit about pleasing the crowd, but the show seemed uncomfortable enough that we wandered off pretty early in the set—and we weren't the only ones. But the fans who stuck around and said the uneven set finished out strong. We'd still give 'em another shot.
Download the Coachella app. It's a great guide to what's going on at Coachella and there are some nice features, like making up your own schedule of acts to see. But the best feature is the alerts, and they're pretty judicious about what they send out. We got alerts letting us know the wind was expected to get nasty, how organizers were planning to direct traffic out of the parking lots on Sunday and that OutKast's set time was being changed. Useful stuff!
Grab some allergy medicine. We read a lot of those packing lists for Coachella, but we didn't see anything recommending allergy medicine, which is a huge oversight. There may not be a big dust storm this weekend like last, but even mild desert winds can stir up some nasty stuff that will kill your festival buzz. Fashionistas: you can turn a bandana into a makeshift mask.
Underbutt isn't as flattering as you think. If you want to let it all hang out because you're in the desert and you goddam feel like it, go for it. That's what Coachella is for. But some people are trying to look good at Coachella, and this year's trend of cut-offs that show your butt cheeks did not help their cause. Weirdly enough, bikini bottoms tend to be more forgiving.
Check out the good food. If you're going to the VIP food section, you're set and you can check out some of the goods our food editor liked here. Outside the VIP section, we'd recommend Night Market Song, Creme Caramel LA, Mexicali Tacos and Spicy Pie. Those slabs of watermelon and Salt & Straw ice cream really hit the spot, too. Stumptown has some delicious cold brew in case you need some pep.
On the other hand, be careful what you eat. It's one thing to get sick because you just went so hard. It's another to end up guzzling Gatorade the next day because of food poisoning, like moi. By the time a bartender in the beer garden warned me not to try anything with mayonnaise in it, I had already tried some delicious crab fries that features both mayo and seafood. Don't do what I did! At a very warm outdoor festival, this may very well be the culinary equivalent of Russian Roulette, and ten minutes into my drive home, I found out I had lost and had to get a motel room in the dusty borough of Calimesa.
