5.01.2008

Coachella Music Festival 2008

Well. . after much debate I decided to go to Coachella Music Festival last Wednesday. I'm SO glad that I went. Music and crowds have always been a great way to refuel my creativity. They don't allow SLR cameras in so even without my camera I found myself taking pictures and watching for right moments between people, couples, reactions, lighting, etc. It's a hot, loud environment yet it's a great place to just "look, see, think".

I got to see many of my favorite musicians. . . Sia, Stars, John Butler Trio, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Raconteurs, Gogol Bordello. The headliner for Sunday was Roger Waters who totally killed it with surround sound, political messages and a light show. During the middle of the show they brought this gigantic hot air balloon size Pig out into the crowd of approx. 35,000 people. "The Pig displayed the words "Don't be led to the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read "Fear builds walls."

The underside of the pig simply read "Obama" with a checked ballot box alongside, referring to U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill."

The Pig was lead around the crowd and when it got to the right side it was released. I thought for sure it was an accident as I just can't imagine getting approval from air traffic to let this huge thing fly wherever yet everyone around me said that they probably have GPS so they can track the pig. Either way we watched it float out until it was out of sight. Around that time, a small plane flew over and dumped a trail of something out above us. All of this being a mystery we found out on Monday that the Pig WAS accidentally released and it was found in two people's yards in La Quinta. They received a $10,000 reward PLUS 4 Coachella tickets for life. Can you imagine walking up and seeing something like this in your yard??



The plane dropped a trail of confetti that had Pro Obama messages typed on it. The plane missed Coachella so the confetti decorated neighborhoods around the fields. None of this was approved so there has been controversy regarding these two major decision to pollute the air and land. It doesn't rain in the desert so these pieces of paper aren't going to just go away. Craziness!!

Either way it was a great time with friends and I highly recommend checking this out next year!

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