It’s sad to say but Coachella 2019 has officially come to an end. After two very successful weekends, Coachella has closed it’s doors on it’s 20th year at the Polo Festival Grounds in Indio, California. Over the span of two weekends, thousands of fans from all over the world gathered to enjoy a wide range of music, food, and art in the desert. Weekend 1 definitely had greener grass and better weather, but I like to think Weekend 2 had the better crowd and vibes. We, here at RaverRafting, had the pleasure of attending Weekend 2 of the beautiful festival and here are our thoughts on the 3 day event.
Let’s start off with this year’s art. Coachella this year brought in 6 featured artists, along with 5 returning favorites. The most talked about piece of art was the big astronaut that was crafted by Los Angeles-based Poetic Kinetics. If you’ve been following Coachella, you know that the Poetic Kinetics have had a huge part in Coachella’s art with their big installations: The big, white astronaut back in 2014 and the caterpillar that transformed into a beautiful butterfly back in 2015. The big astronaut made it’s return to the grounds this year but had a different chrome body that would allow some lucky fans to upload their own smiles onto the face of the big spaceman. From time to time, the astronaut would move around from stage to stage, making his or her way around the busy crowds.
Professional weirdos, Dedo Vabo also made their return to the festival grounds with their hippo-staffed installation which showcased costumed hippos performing work in different stations. If this looked familiar it’s because Dedo Vabo had a hippo-staffed three story tall office building back in 2015. This was a great mix between art and live performance.
Francis Kere, Office Kovacs, and NEWSUBSTANCE were among the other featured artists who brought life to Coachella with their fun and colorful installations that provided much needed shade and beautiful backdrops for all types of photos.
And of course, the Do Lab made it’s return back to the grounds after being there for 15 years! With a newer and bigger structure, the Do Lab housed thousands of music lovers who were looking to get away from the hot sun to enjoy some shade, water guns, and groovy music. Artists such as Justin Jay, 29 Palms, and Holly played some incredible sets that had the crowd bumpin’. Plenty of surprise artists played to close the 3 nights such as Nina Kraviz, Yotto, and Tale of Us. We are so glad to see the Do Lab come back to the festival after 15 successful years!
The undercard this year was exceptionally amazing and showcased many diverse yet popular acts of today. Latin music superstars, J Balvin and Bad Bunny took on the Main stage. Korean mega group, BlackPink performed in front of thousands at the Sahara stage. French Prince of Darkness, Gesaffelstein made his return by performing to a huge crowd at the Outdoor Theatre. Irish born, Aphex Twin annihilated the crowd with a daunting yet incredible set in the Mojave tent. And the list goes on with the many talented musicians from all over the world. One of our favorite international acts we saw was Polo & Pan who performed to a smaller yet vibrant crowd at the Gobi stage. The crowd was filled with good vibes as the French duo played one of the best electronic sets we saw all weekend.
This year’s headliners included Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, and Ariana Grande. Although the undercards overtook this year’s headliners, Tame Impala was definitely one of our favorite sets of the weekend and was definitely the best headlining show of the three days. Australian singer and frontman of Tame Impala, Kevin Parker is a genius! The set consisted of Tame’s biggest songs that were combined with tons of vibrant visuals and the most lasers we saw all weekend. At one point, lasers were even coming out of Kevin Parker’s eyes on the big screens. It was insane! Tame Impala also brought out A$AP Rocky as they performed their newest collaboration, “Sundress” and then proceeded to perform Rocky’s “L$D”. It was the perfect way to end the 2nd day of the festival.
This year, Weekend 2 brought out most of the special guests, from Brandy and Jay Rock coming out for Anderson .Paak, to Kanye West, Ty Dolla Sign, and 070 Shake coming out for Kid Cudi. And the long list of special guest continued as the weekend went on.
After 20 successful years, Coachella proves to remain as the top multi-cultural, multi-genre music festival in the world. The three day festival sets the tone for festival season all around the US and we’re glad to see more and more festivals arise from Coachella’s inception. 20 amazing line-ups have gone by, and we are excited to see what GoldenVoice and Coachella have up their sleeves next!
All Photo Credit: Courtesy of Coachella
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