We couldn't wait to hear what riyoko's own Jordan had to say about her trip to Coachella this year. For those of us who didn't make it to the festival, Jordan has kindly shared her story of this once in a lifetime experience. Enjoy! 

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Although we weren't flying, our journey started at the airport. We were there to rent a car so we could start off for Indio, California and Coachella, one of the largest and most renowned yearly music festivals. We set off later than we had hoped but we were excited to be on our way! After a slight detour at the border, our group decided that we had the stamina to drive straight through to Las Vegas to spend a night there. We got to Vegas from Calgary in 22 hours; we were fatigued but quickly energized by the bright lights and vibrant night life of the city. We splurged on a hotel room, caught the Wiggly Pirate Girls show and wasted some money on penny slot machines. Our night in Vegas helped us to get pumped up for what was in store for us at the festival.

When we woke up it was hot...incredibly hot. We hit the hotel pool and did a bit of shopping before getting back on the road. We were in the home stretch of our trip with just 6 hours of driving to go. As we cruised, we sang along to the 7gig playlist that featured all the artists we were about to see. When we drove into Indio and onto the festival grounds, our priorities were to set up camp, have some drinks and get to some show. Our first show of the weekend was The Rapture. It was awesome to see them perform "House of Jealous Lovers" along with a few of our other favorite songs. The next band on the agenda was M83 who we followed with Amon Tobin, who stole the night with an insane light show consisting of a swarm of cubes. The cubes spelled out his name with the DJ booth set up in the centre cube. We became fast friends with our camp neighbours as we spent the rest of that night together enjoying the shows. 

The next day proved to be us against the heat. The sun was scorching at 106 degrees F./ 41 C. and we were forced spend the day following the shade. We caught Destroyer and Zeds Dead; I got to crowd surf for the first time in my life at Awolnation. During our second day, we stopped frequently at the Heineken tent (the only air-conditioned space on site). This is where we caught Ilesha, one of Calgary's own names on the electronic scene. Later that night we saw Bon Iver, and I enjoyed one of the best performances of the weekend when they played "Skinny Love." The Radiohead show was amazing as well; amid the thousands of people there you could have heard a pin drop. It was such a moving performanceand people all around me were tearing up. Our second night concluded with a search for other Calgarians in the campsites, this brought us to a discotheque that some festival goers had set up in their site. 

Sunday was even more of a weather survival game. We saw Noisia during the day and nursed our sunstroke with the few cold beverages we could get our hands on. We made friends with a bunch of Brits who generously shared their warm, bagged wine. That evening we saw Calvin Harris, who put on another spectacular light show. He also shot what felt like a 10 tonne truck's worth of confetti onto the crowd during his latest single "Feel So Close,"- it was great! We then caught At the Drive In, in preparation for the most life changing show of the weekend: Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. I've listened to these artists consistently since high school, so seeing Snoop and Dre was like a dream come true for me. I felt like I was on cloud nine during the whole performance. 50 Cent came on stage mid-set with the other members of G-Unit and they were followed by Eminem and the infamous holographic Tupac. I'd heard some rumours of the Tupac appearance at the previous weekend but I simply couldn't have imagined I'd be seeing 50 and Eminem. It was a truly mind blowing, once in a lifetime opportunity that I'm grateful to have had.

Exhausted from heatstroke and our intense 3 day festival adventure, we were in bed by 2am on our last night there. We woke up early the next day to the ever-blaring sun, packed the car and said goodbye to all of our camp friends from around the world. The trip home to Calgary felt much longer than the way to the festival. We were worn out from the experience and spent the night just outside of Salt Lake City in Beaver, Utah. We made it back in one piece and I couldn't be happier to have made the trip. All in all, Coachella was one of the best times of my life. It is surely an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

<3 Jordan