Yeah, we like LOVE Coachella.

What’s it to ya?

Desert dust, campground chaos, influencer vanity, outfit checks, over-priced food and oh so much music.

We get it, Coachella sucks…

right?

Look, if you’re trying to find a critic column on music, festivals or lifestyle choices (?), let this be the first and last time you find out that Union West isn’t the place that’ll satisfy your lust for that.

But do let this be the first time you find out that, we, the Union of the West, LOVE Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

And trust, we see the influencer vanity, have forked up the dough for (inarguably the best) $100 garlic noodz, and we have def gotten that post-Coachella dust cough thing (yeah, look it up).

Not to mention, it costs how much just to go f*ck around in the desert and hang out with stupid “celebrities”???

Yet, why is it that every time we go…

All of that falls to the wayside?

We don’t have some sacred end-all be-all answer to that.

But, if we had to insist on putting a finger on it, it’s probably just because it’s a good time.

We’re not huge on duality here at Union West though. Life’s not about good and/or bad. You’re not 6 years old and we’re not your parents.

Needless to say, there’s just an undeniable vibration when you’re at Coachella. It’s so charged with sound waves, human energy, desert energy and of course, solar energy.

Sometimes, you find yourself walking by the Green Day set and remember who you were when “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” came out, or better yet, what parties you were crashing when “Welcome to Paradise” dominated the radio waves. Sometimes, you may find yourself rolling your eyes at the sight of a massive pop star’s cringey fan base, but then you question why you hold such judgements so close to your chest.

Yes, you also find yourself sweating like a little piglet in the 90-degree heat but then you look over at the person next to you and they’re sweating far more profusely than you are so you offer them a wave of your fan (hopefully you’ve got one, they’re really helpful at music festivals) and then you find out that you’re both there that year for the same exact small-name punk band closing out the Sonora tent. They’re visiting from Vegas and you’re from Portland. Fast forward 5 years later, you find yourself eating cheeseburgers together for dinner while you happen to be in Vegas and just laugh alongside them reminiscing about how crazy and serendipitous it was that you guys met at the Sahara mound in Coachella way back in 2022.

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Listen, we’re not here to convince you to get a wristband for 2027

There’s more important causes and expenditures for you to invest in. There are actual festival-like retreats that are catered for divination. There are causes out there that could use our funds to help people in less privileged circumstances.

But if going to Coachella gets you that much closer to finding out who you are, or gets you closer to someone you wouldn’t have otherwise met in your day-to-day, then you deserve to get after everything that serves you.

And not just because we told you so.