This is obviously not my first festival post. However, this was actually my first festival back in April 2014. Stagecoach is solely a country music festival located just out of Palm Springs in the Coachella Desert. It’s hot as hell as you can imagine and in a large open space with three stages. This particular weekend turned into much more than I could have imagined and not because of the festival, but because all of my friends (most of them not going to the festival) came with us to Palm Springs. Cue ridiculousness and debauchery.
The thing about Stagecoach is unless you have a camper or RV then you cannot stay on site. What does that mean to those of us with no mobile lodging? Long lines and bus rides to and from the festival grounds. As we make our way into the festival we get there just after the gates open and it is everything you would expect. Jean shorts, plaid, cowgirl boots, and cowboy hats in every direction.
What was handy about this festival is their app. It had a full schedule and stage set up. You could even build your own “play list” and it would send you reminders when you needed to get to the next stage. It has little shops of country themed shirts and hats to buy and as you can imagine a ton of food and booze options. After 10 hours of music and running around it was time to head back. Luckily we made the decision to leave during the final set so was able to beat the line to go back to Palm Springs.
Remember when I mentioned all my friends came and it was going to be ridiculous?! Well. It was. My friends sang me a song with a full on dance to convince me not to go to day two of Stagecoach and to stay with them. Hahaha. It worked. My boyfriend and I didn’t make it to day two of the festival because we got so caught up in the atmosphere of where we were. (Also, imagining the bus line and ride also wasn’t appealing.) So we agreed that we would continue on with our day with what we thought was more fun and didn’t even make it to the festival on day two.
So day three is upon us and we all are really hurting from day two. This day I have been looking forward to. The only reason I bought us tickets was to see Corey Smith on day three. Me and the select few are getting ready to go when the Stagecoach app sends us a notification “Corey Smith will be unable to perform today. A replacement set will be scheduled.” Uggghhhhhh noooooo! I was so incredibly disappointed. I have loved him since I was 16 so what did we do? Ha. We didn’t go to Stagecoach day three. We ended up with my friends for the day and I know what you must be thinking. “What was the point if you only went one day?” And you are exactly right. There was no point. After seeing the transportation, my friends having their own fun, and my main act canceling. There actually was no point. But what I left with was some amazing memories with friends I didn’t know were leaving LA (my best friend left that June to move back to Iowa) and with my friends I still see to this day. Will I return to Stagecoach – hell no. Will I return to Palm Springs – absolutely.
The Echoing World 