So, you’re making the Herculean venture into the California desert to attend the most highly scrutinized pop cultural event of the year. Coachella is, for better or for worse, the maker and breaker of the zeitgeist, the annals of its history a survey of music, style, food, and brand popularity for each of its (extremely well documented) years. To attend Coachella can be extremely laborious—but, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the yearslong discourse—Coachella is ever popular because it’s really fun. 

This year, the first weekend of the festival saw 125,000 attendees traverse the grounds of the Empire Polo Club, meandering between stages through hundreds of activations, food stands, secret bars, merch booths, and art installations. Among the musical highlights of the weekend, festivalgoers witnessed Justin Bieber perform his first live set in nearly a decade, saw Young Thug perform a boisterous tribute to late friend and creative collaborator Rich Homie Quan, danced as COBRAH brought out electronic pioneer Grimes, and bounced alongside Tinashe as she performed a packed set to a DoLab crowd.

Among the multitudinous culinary highlights of the festival: VIP festivalgoers had the opportunity to enjoy a three-course farm-to-table meal with the return of the nightly Outstanding in the Field; guests shared slices of Prince Street Pizza in groups of friends and strangers; friends and lovers enjoyed a sweet splitting of churros from Churrería El Moro (which recently found a home opposite Dodgers Stadium in Echo Park!). If a passerby was lucky enough, they ended up at one of the several speakeasies throughout the grounds (perhaps Mixteca, the Tiki Bar, or Block Party). 

That being said—Coachella is known for having porous boundaries. The festival does not begin and end within sight of the Polo Field, and any habitual festivalgoer knows that offsite locations can make or break the individual experience—whether they may be the accommodations, the afterparties, or the activations before the fest. 

If, before the 12 hours on the grounds of the adult playground that is the Coachella Arts & Music Festival, you’d like to acquire the taste for the party, where ultimate play meets the ultimate music experience, then Revolve Festival is the place for you. Now institutionalized as Saturday afternoon preparty, Revolve Festival offers rides, giveaways, and of course, more music. This year, Revolve Festival celebrated its 9th anniversary with Don Toliver headlining, with other performers Chase B, Kitty Ca$h, Kehlani, and Mustard, and surprise guest, Mario.

Should one seek a haven within biking distance of the festival (and, let’s be honest, who isn’t seeking a place in Coachella close enough to the festival grounds that the Uber prices cost less than a singular drink) one should look no further than the Saint Boniface Hotel. Located not 15 minutes from the festival in Downtown Indio, the Saint Boniface Hotel is a unique collection of casitas centered around a cabana-lined pool. Walking distance from the town’s restaurants, bakeries, and shops, the Saint Boniface Hotel is an independently owned stay that offers complimentary breakfast burritos in the morning, and is completely and totally equipped with everything one needs; in addition to the kitchen cupboards being filled with pots and pans, silverware and dishware, cups, snacks, and a coffee machine, bathrooms are stocked with fresh toiletries & Hermès bathing products. Founder, Jane Saint Boniface, has built a life filled with music and travel, and her accommodations reflect just that: think groovy, bright interiors met with soothing, homey amenities. Inspired by vintage Hollywood and it's surrounding desert, this is a stay to start the party, close out the party, or completely relax within the exciting happenings of Indio.

In the past decade and a half, the festival has become synonymous with processed luxury; celebrity staying power; ultra wealth; and inflation of ego. However, the festival’s repute is not necessarily synchronous with the actual experience of Coachella. Ultimately, in the lineage of any music festival that’s taken place over multiple generations, the Coachella experience is best defined by a very human, very vulnerable sense of interpersonal connection. Watch the sunset over the mountains with thousands of strangers; listen as your favorite musical artist invigorates the tired feet of a moblike dance floor; hold the hand of your best friend while watching the crowd filter around you. It is this sort of real, genuine connection that is brought to the forefront at Motel By The Sea, about 45 minutes south of the grounds itself. Owned and operated by Gary and Roxanne, local residents of Salton City and second-generation owners of the property, the Motel By the Sea is desolate and strikingly beautiful. Originally a hardware store during the Salton Sea’s mid-20th century vacation boom, Gary’s grandfather was a construction framer who purchased the building and began to add rooms and renovate. Some fifty years later, Gary and Roxanne operate a clean, efficient seasonal motel in the space, where they host bonfires every night atop the sprawling seaside parcel of land, under the vast dark blanket of the sky. The Motel By The Sea is, in Gary’s words, “not for the talent.” But, we say, to him is Coachella for the talent? We don’t think so. Coachella is about celebrating the beauty of your friends and your music taste and testing the limits of your body and brain and your imagination. There is no place more fitting for the intrepid, restless festivalgoer spirit than Motel by the Sea. 

‍Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival continues for its second weekend today, ending on Sunday, April 19th. Catch all these activations and more this weekend and next year.