I went to my first music festival with my parents when I was around 8 years old. My memories of that first festival have nothing to do with music, infact I’m pretty sure I had no idea there was even live music happening. I was very focused on getting my face painted, eating cotton candy and convincing my mom to buy me a crazy looking hat. Over the last 20 years of going to festivals I’ve picked up a few key tricks for getting the most out of your experience. Coachella is one of my favorite music festivals and here is what I’ve learned from my years of going: 

1. Hydrate:

It’s hot, real hot(!), and you’ll be outside all day – drink water, gatorade, Emergen-C… anything that will keep you hydrated and give you some extra electrolytes is always good. You can also bring in empty refillable water bottles to fill at the water stations so you don’t have to spend money buying bottled water.

2. Vitamins:

You want to feel good both during and after the festival, and when you are partying around a ton of people, not on your usual sleep schedule, and running around having a blast it’s going to deplete your immune system and make for an epic hangover. So take those vitamins (multi, vitamin C, echinacea, b12, etc) to avoid that post festival flu, because nothing sucks more than going back to work after an awesome weekend than going back to work feel crappy.

3. Protect your skin:

It’s real sunny out there, so no matter your skin type or how much time you spent at the tanning salon, sunscreen is your friend. Sunburns are the worst, so put it on and bring some extra with you just in case. For some stylish added protection hats are always a good option for protecting you from the midday sun too.

4. Eat:

This may seem like a no brainer, but you’ll be having so much fun that it’s pretty easy to forget to feed yourself when you are cruising from stage to stage and dancing your butt off. What I like to do is have a nice big breakfast so I’m fueled up for the day and bring in some little snacks, like granola bars & fruit snacks, to munch on throughout the day (plus then you don’t have to buy all the overpriced food inside the festival).

5. Inflatable pool toys:

Not just fun for the pool parties, but are really effective for finding your friends in the crowd. I hear the kids are calling them “totems” nowadays, and it makes it really easy to spot your people among the masses. These have been so helpful is years that I’ve gone with a really large group, it made meeting up with anyone so easy, all I had to do was look for the kids holding the blow up sharks. 

6. Bandana:

It’s sounds random but can totally come in handy. If it gets windy and dust stormy you can put it over your nose and mouth. You can use it to pull back your hair if you get sweaty and hot (gross? Yeah, but you know it can happen). And it’s always nice to get it wet and put it on your face, neck, or any body part that needs cooling.

7. Lockers:

If you aren’t camping on site it’s really nice to have a locker to throw your sweatshirt, backpack, snacks, whatever, in so you don’t have to cart it around while you get down. You don’t want to be that person dancing with the backpack on hitting everyone in your immediate vicinity. You can reserve one here. 

8. The Coachella app:

Download the Coachella app to activate your wristband, check set times and get festival updates. I really like the My Schedule section because it lets me line up which bands I want to see each day. Plus it includes stages and times too so you know when and where you are going and if any sets you want to see overlap each other.

And lastly, it’s not really a tip, but just remember to have fun!