Written by: Bernadette
Frank151 made its way to the biggest desert music festival, Coachella, for Weekend 2 and as Forrest Gump would probably tell us, “Coachella Weekends are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get…” To which is true. Attending Weekend 2 and comparing it to Weekend 1, there’s expectations and speculations on if the following weekend will be as equally fulfilling as the prior weekend either for better or for worse. There’s always debate on which weekend is best and it’s almost like a “Who Wore It Best,” but more like a “Who Performed It Best,” with each performer booked actually just competing with themselves for the following weekend. Excluding Frank Ocean, but hey that’s not a jab, it’s just the truth. We love you Frank! And real talk, we watched your performance and really enjoyed it. Look forward to the new album! –but back to our feature presentation: Coachella Weekend 2.
Weekend 2 may or may not have been the better weekend. No one really knows because every person has their own personal experience with it and unless you’re an attendee attending both weekends or you’re a performer performing both weekends, there’s no real definitive answer, but as Damon Albarn of Gorillaz mentioned, “I’m sorry, but Weekend 2 is better than Weekend 1.” Well that’s still a personal preference. He might’ve just been as stoked as everyone else who was happily amazed by Zendaya’s surprise performance.
There’s no denying that one of the best parts of a music festival is not only seeing your favorite artists in one place, but discovering new ones. There were amazing performances from rising artists such as Raja Kumari, Christine and the Queens, Angelé, Knocked Loose, Ape Drums, Jasmine Solano, Conexion Divina, Bratty, Pi’erre Bourne, Remi Wolf, Lava La Rue, Belly, Mareux, Jupiter & Okwess, Téo?, Lewis Ofman, AG Club, Casian and many more.
Additionally, some of the best Coachella moments outside of music included: The gamer girl gang ( Justine Skye, Carlacia Grant, Cailin Russo, Alexis Ren and Delilah Belle) on the scene to promote Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo IV launching June 6th – which followed the fiery performance of “Lilith” by multi-platinum artist Halsey at the Game Awards where it was announced that Diablo IV had a record-breaking back-to-back Beta Weekend in which players clocked in over 61.5 million hours. Festival goers were also transported to Absolut Land. A magical (air-conditioned) world where the atmosphere exuded Absolut’s connection to nightlife, culture, the arts, and creativity; all within a space that encouraged inclusivity, diversity, and celebration. It was the place to gather, let loose and meet new friends! Ahead of Coachella, Absolut had partnered with Hey! VINA – think Tinder for (girl) friendships – to help people meet a new bestie with shared interests to take the festival season by storm! The Official Vodka of Coachella had also teamed up with Rachel Recchia & Genevieve Parisi of Bachelor Nation to curate a cocktail kit for those who couldn’t make it to Indio. Each cocktail kit included a bottle of Absolut, a jigger, and cocktail ingredients, and limited-edition friendship bracelets from Little Words Project! It definitely was one of the happening spots for attendees to cool off, have a cold cocktail, dance, and capture endless content! Plus who doesn’t love happy hour. While Absolute provided the liquor, there was another magical spot for our non-alcoholic friends, The New Bar. The delicious non-alcoholic alternative. LA’s teeny Latina-owned alcohol-free bottle shop, The New Bar, was Coachella’s first-ever official nonalcoholic partner. With growing popularity around booze free options and a rise in attendee use of #soberchella (yes, there’s a dedicated sub-Reddit to this), this partnership satisfied many palates and changed the way mainstream events catering to younger audiences think about nonalcoholic options.
Music festivals aren’t just a place to party, it’s a place to enjoy the company of others while also discovering new things and as always, we asked some Coachella artists their favorite Frank151 question, “Who would be your top 3 artists, dead or alive, at your ‘Dream Festival’?” See answers below:
Francis Mercier
Bob Marley, Alpha Brazil, Magic System
Mureax
Interpol, TRST, Blood Orange
Knocked Loose
Bryan Garris: Matchbox 20, Nicko Calderon: My Chemical Romance, Isaac Hale: Metallica, Kevin Otten: Lincoln Park, Kevin Kaine: Dua Lips
Conexión Divina
Selena (Quintanilla), Bad Bunny, Juice World (or Michael Jackson)
Brianda Gonzalez (owner of The New Bar)
FKJ, Hozier, Norah Jones
As music festivals are like a box of chocolates, we didn’t know what we were going to get, but all in all, we liked it. Hope those that attended Weekend 1 thought it was just as sweet as we thought Weekend 2 was.