For the most part, the second-weekend-goers had a whole week of avoiding (or embracing!) the social content, the live streaming and videos, and probably even some spoilers of what's to come. Nowhere is safe, and not only your friends but celebrities will make sure you can’t miss all the fun before having a go.
But guess what, weekend numero dos may as well be able to provide the better Coachella experience.
Nowadays, you can pretty much find everything about a show before it happens. With websites like setlist.fm, Youtube videos of every concert of the tour, and an all-around easiness of information, this can't be an issue. With Coachella, it's pretty damn hard to escape the buzz around what happened during the first weekend. But if you're the kind of person who prefers the excitement of going clueless to a concert, praying for that song to be played, or you're the one who simply likes to gamble on what’s next...this is exactly like saving yourself from spoilers of the previous night's Game of Thrones episode. Still, for the money you spent on your ticket, avoiding your feed for a week seems like a small price to pay to have the full, fresh experience.
However, that is the case for those who get a kick out of surprises.
What about the others who might enjoy the certainty and safeness? What if actually knowing the setlist of overlaid concerts might help in the decision on which to choose? And what if after all the band decides to switch a song or two and even gratify the audience with a really awesome B-side by the encore? Wouldn’t that surprise and excitement be intensified? Not to talk about managing the expectations we put on certain concerts. What a relief would be, knowing the form of a band just a week before playing. I might even say this is the main advantage of watching bits of a performance happening a few days before you’ll take a chance to see.
Another relevant aspect associated with the first weekend of Coachella is the swarm of celebrities and media circus, much less present the following weekend. Of course, it’s all fun and games trying to guess what the hell that actress was thinking, dressing that poncho in Real Estate’s gig, but, indubitably, weekend two is less agitated. Even the stars that attend week two go almost incognito, obviously not too keen on showing up in the news, and almost in correlation, the media circus is also much bearable. For a mere mortal looking for peace of mind during concerts, this has to be considered.
Finally, ignoring other arbitrary aspects such as weather (I guess a week closer to the Summer implies a bigger probability of better conditions?) or crowd affluence, it should be noted that generally speaking, an event that repeats itself in such a short amount of time has to be better executed. The second weekend will most likely bring improvements to set times, production and shows. It’s an ongoing process the organization of a huge event like this, and by the time of its closure, things should run much smoother, definitively improving your time spent there.
So next year, keep in mind if you’re attending Coachella: give weekend two a thought. Because at least you would be making it to the in facto last day of Coachella. Sorry, Week-Oners, we’ll close the party down.
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