http://www.coachella.com/

this year's gonna be good.

HOLY SHIT! DEATH FROM ABOVE REUNITED!

yeah, that alone would tempt me to buy tickets, but as always Coachella falls smack in the middle of finals for me.

Finals for you is in April? Or do you have a sort of "quarter" system?

Anyway, I have a question for those of you who are more experienced in going to festivals than I am (I've only been to Coachella): A lot of my friends want to go this year too (DFA1979 cinched that). But after a year of telling them that they needed to go to, I realized something… I sort of use it as a temp. "vacation from myself", as Walé would call it. Idk it's kind of a weird feeling, and I feel not unlike a douche in thinking this, but even though I'd definitely want to be there with a couple of my best friends, I don't want everyone I know on a daily basis to just be living all over me for the duration. So my question is: For those of you who mainly go to festivals by yourself, do you feel the same way?

I just went to the Big Day Out, and aside from a few meetups with friends at various gigs, I made a conscious effort to be alone and independent throughout the day. I agree that it's a good chance to have a "vacation from myself" and just do whatever the hell I feel like. Having friends with you every now and then is cool, but tagging along with a group of them for the entire time? Hell no.

Been to mad festivals and I'll say that the best "experience" I've ever had was at my very first year at Coachella cuz I went by myself and pretty much slept in my van in the parking lot of walmart all 3 days. It was the most underprepared I've ever been to a festival, yet for some reason, it just made me feel alive and it felt like a wholly new experience that would be forever committed to memory. I know what you're saying about going by yourself or at least, temp vacationing from your "usual" and you know what? You're absolutely right. If you really wanna subject yourself to an isolated experience that transcends your normal life, then go by yourself. Hell sometimes shows are better that way becasue there's a certain expectation of how you're supposed to act when you're with certain friends (though when it's festival time they do know you must "live" a little and act accordingly.)

Like last year I had my camping group and that being my 4th coachella, it felt surprisingly underwhelming. You would think you'd have way more fun with the people you know, but that somehow loses the "freshness" of the whole experience. You start feeling that you know the festival way too much, especially with these people whom you know. It starts becoming more of a bro-weekend trip and less like a vacationing experience to something very foreign and alive. And I'm sure I will never get the experience again I had back in 07. But that's just something you have to live with and to fight back at it, you just have to try new things.

This will be your 3rd coachella right rendle? And the good thing about that is is that you've never gone camping. The first time I went camping in 09, that in itself was this restoration of newness because I was stuck in a situation where I was meeting new people who were taking drugs willy nilly and sharing this beautiful love of music and just general camraderie together. So for you, expect this year to at least be different in that way. At this point, I don't think you should purposely NOT bring your friends to get that new feeling (cuz directly trying won't do it any good), I say bring em, but then just make an effort elsewhere to make it an experience that you normally don't subject yourself to irl. Try new drugs, maybe meet new girls, live a little, dance yrself clean, kna what I mean? The only way you're gonna feel the real vaca aspect again is if you go to another festival in an entirely different land (all by yourself if you really want an experience).

But really man, don't mind bringing company, just start trying new things with your covered knowledge of the festival. I'm more of a longing for that this year since this will be my third year camping and this will be your first. But that won't stop me from putting myself out of my usual everyday life comfort zone for 3 straight days of good music, hot girls, good drugs and smelly portapotties.

That's actually a good way of putting it... like all of it. I think this year since there will most likely be more friends of mine that are going, I'll just roam free by myself for some times. If I want to see one band and not another, I'll tell my amigos to meet me somewhere later. While I'm for sure not gonna be in a huge group (like the bro-weekend trip you were talking about; that's how i kinda feared it turning out) I'll still probably just mob in groups of two or three per usual for these festivals.