The Coachella festival is one of the most, if not the most, popular music event held in the United States every year. Renowned celebrities and emerging artists perform at these events and showcase their latest and most popular works for the attending audience. Therefore, all eyes are set on Coachella 2019, and people are expecting it to be a blast.

Inland Empire – Indio

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. It was first organized in 1999. Since then, it has become a fundamental part of American culture and is heavily attended by people from all over the US.

Why Coachella 2019?

Well, there are plenty of reasons why you should attend Coachella 2019. I mean seriously, that shouldn’t even be a question in the first place. Coachella is everything a music lover can imagine.

If a killer lineup and an opportunity to meet celebrities aren’t enough, Coachella offers a whole lot more for attendees to look forward to.

Socializing: Meeting New People

The Coachella festival has always attracted large crowds, with the total tally reaching 250,000 in 2017. Such a huge attendance gives you ample chance to meet new people and socialize with them. Hopefully, you will make some new friends with very little effort at the festival.

The Food and Architecture

Coachella festival, unlike other events of the same kind, is outstanding and something out of the ordinary. Moreover, there is creative art and architecture on display which will provide you with the chance to take some memorable photos.

Unpredictability and Guest Stars

The excitement levels at Coachella are always high. Moreover, the crowds can go really wild when there are sudden celebrity guest appearances on stage. All in all, it is something you just cannot afford to miss. You must be there to truly experience it.

2019 Coachella Lineup

People had been going mad in wait for the official announcement on Coachella’s lineup this year. Well, the wait is over, and the organizers have officially announced that the star-studded 2019 Coachella lineup will include artists like Tame Impala, Ariana Grande, and Childish Gambino.

Furthermore, Coachella revealed that Solange, Aphex Twin, and Janelle Monae among other famous celebrities will also be performing in Coachella Valley this year.

Get Coachella Tickets

Tickets will be hard to get especially with the news spreading that people will get to see Ariana at Coachella and Childish Gambino at Coachella. You can find passes and Coachella tickets online. However, you should know that there are several types of passes that are available online.

Firstly, there is the general admission pass which costs around $429. Then, there is the VIP pass that costs $999. And, finally, there is the general admission pass with shuttle facility at $509.

Weekend 1 or Weekend 2?

There is no real difference between the events taking place on Weekend 1 and Weekend 2 of Coachella. However, there are minor variations in the timings of the performances. Moreover, the guest stars are also different on both weekends.

According to some attendees, Coachella on the second weekend seems to be far well-managed in comparison to its first weekend. Moreover, the second weekend is not live streamed on the internet.

I got my weekend 1 tickets so I’ll see all of you there in April!

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Every year, thousands of people gather together to celebrate something different. Rise Festival celebrates in the Mojave desert, more specifically at the Moapa River Indian Reservation. This event is held at night where thousands of lanterns are ignited and light up the desert sky.

There are several Rise festival events but I attended the one in the Mojave desert, which is about 30 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The event gives you a unique opportunity to literally stand in a field of hopes and dreams that’s written on thousands of illuminated lanterns. This event occurs in October every year. This year in 2017, it will be on October 6th and 7th.

Getting to the location is fairly easy. If you are using google maps, simply input ‘moapa travel center’ and it will guide you to the correct spot. You’ll be parking on loose dirt so don’t be surprised if your car has a dirt ombre. Make sure to get there early because there will be a line that starts way before the highway exit. Of course, Rise Festival partners up with hotels in Las Vegas to provide cheaper hotels rates and shuttle service.

Elevate hope. Ignite dreams. Create moments.

Yes, you read that right. This event fully promotes a positive and priceless experience that costs $89-$129 per ticket. It is a very social event so going with a group makes it that much more fun. Moreover, bringing a loved one or signficant other can lead to further bonding and strengthened feelings and goals. Each person receives a package that contains two lanterns, a marker, and a mat to sit on. The mat is reusable which is great. When the time comes, the MC will tell everyone to write their goals, dreams, purposes and/or prayers on the lanterns. Then, you’ll get the flame going and let the hot air accumulate inside the lantern. With enough hot air, the lantern will naturally rise. Just be careful if the winds are high. I’ve seen many lanterns become fireballs.

The only gripe I have for this event is this: The whole desert floor gets trashed! These lanterns rise but after a certain altitude and time, they must fall. I really do hope they have volunteers and workers who actively locate these lanterns and clean them off the desert floor. Will I attend another rise festival? Probably not.

Items used at this event:

Camera: Sony A7Rii

Lens: Sony FE 16-35mm F4 OSS

Tripod: Sirui Carbon Fiber Tripod

Bag: Granite Gear

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Today, Earth Day is a relatively innocuous phrase–it inspires, what? A park cleanup, a few speeches here and there, and maybe a hiking event complete with birdwatching and smores. We’ve completely forgotten the militancy of the first Earth Day, and how it was one of the most forceful expressions of democratic voice this country has ever seen. 

What do we do for Earth Day? We get out, we explore our national parks, we take in all the natural beauty that our states have to offer. And most likely, we forget about it tomorrow. Earth Day, through no one’s fault, is in danger of becoming another half-hearted celebration of ‘let’s-care-for-a-day.’ And so it would be useful now to remember: the first Earth Day was planted in rebellious and volatile ground. It took root in post-Vietnam War unrest and dissatisfaction, a time where in which the public was outraged at government expenditure on a fruitless war that diverted funds from other crucial public services. It was a time so like our current moment, and yet so different. One of these differences was that the word ‘environmentalism’ had yet to be invented.

In the 60s, America was barely becoming aware that the industrialization it was so proud of might be a cancer on the country. Against calls for restricted government spending, and a return to normalcy in the midst of student protests and demonstration, Wisconsin senator (and future Earth Day founder) Gaylord Nelson took the floor to voice concerns that had gone unreported and unacknowledged. Incensed by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, inspired by the anti-war protests, he delivered a speech that year to Americans for Democratic Action. He asked why we as Americans were able to win World Wars, develop weapons of mass destruction, and put a man on the moon, but we

1. Can’t get food to our hungry children in a nation with too much to eat.

2. Can’t get downtown in the morning or travel across country in an efficient mass transit system.

3. Can’t get medical care to the Ghetto, the elderly or the poor in rural America.

4. And with all our lavish spending, we can’t even create an educational system that capitalizes on one of the strongest drives a child has — the desire to learn.

5. And in a nation more abundantly endowed than any other we can’t quite get organized for a massive effort to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink or the beauty of our countryside. How could we organize to win a big war, create the nuclear weapons system and rocket to the moon — And still fall so short of our historic goal — The creation of a social structure founded on quality instead of quantity and moral might instead of military might.

He goes on to note that, up to that point, the public had depended on large companies to be as productive socially as they were materially, that they could “do our social planning for us too,” a view whose naivete he then attempts to express:

The challenges are open and obvious for all to see … That the most important measure of success in this system is power, affluence, abundance, bigness, gross national product, and profits. It is a challenge that says any system that becomes dominated by these forces is incapable of producing a society of quality.

Nelson’s concerns sound eerily similar to “revolutionary” ideals still propounded today, don’t they? Today, Earth Day is a global celebration, called the “biggest secular observance in the world,” and Nelson has since earned himself a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 for his efforts, the highest award that can be bestowed upon a civilian. But back then, it was just another scrappy grassroots protest that baffled the media and attracted the ire of civil authorities.

News coverage of the first Earth Day did the event little justice. To be fair, this was partially the fault of the event’s organizers, who asked journalists and major news outlets to turn their cameras towards events in major cities and open air demonstrations. The first Earth Day was meant to be peaceful, and by and large, it was so. But news networks were able to capture the handful of events that turned violent, and these are absolutely fascinating to observe through the lens of current protest movements.

In this CBS news segment from 1970, anchor Robert Shakne comments on a non-violent protest in Boston, Massachusettes, spearheaded by student demonstrators. He notes:

It wasn’t clear why the state police ordered the demonstrators out, but they were leaving when for no visible reason–trouble. The police charging the crowd, seizing the coffins, pushing those who moved too slowly, and arresting 13. There had been talk in advance of crowds of thousands, in attempts to disrupt the airport, but that didn’t happen. This crowd, just a few hundred, had seemed orderly and non-violent.

The first Earth Day was a proud projection of the public voice, against domineering networks of power, that struggled to make a cause known. We have the historical hindsight today to say that this was a brilliantly successful revolution. Don’t do it injustice, don’t make it a fad. Do you know why Earth Day is on April 22? Nelson chose that day because it was between Spring Break and Finals Week. Earth Day was created with students in mind, with protests in mind; the first conception of Earth Day was a “national teach-in event” to instruct the world.

In the decade following the first Earth Day, this is what we accomplished: the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the passing of the Clean Air, Clean Water, Endangered Species, Toxic Substances Control, and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Acts. So what does Earth Day mean? That protest works. That revolution enacts change. That if you care about a thing, you can save it. The proof is in Earth Day, the historical fact that its proponents did win the day, and the fact that you do know what environmentalism means. Now go forth and give a damn.

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For National Park Week, absolutely all state parks in the United States are free of charge until April 24th, which means it’s time to get out there and explore!

The annual National Park Week is a celebration organized to encourage people to get out and visit the natural treasures the country has to offer. And they do this by making absolutely every national park free to enter for the duration of the event! Just let that sink in: you can tour all of California’s gorgeous desert parks,  every single one of Utah’s buffet of beautiful canyon park, all of Arizona’s stunning red rock formations, for absolutely nothing at all. Though camping fees still apply, this still comes as fantastic news for travelers on a budget, so grab your hiking boots and look up a park already!

Campers and backpackers nationwide gave a collective groan last year when steep admissions increases were announced for several of the most prominent state parks. Big attractions like Yosemite and Yellowstone saw a modest $5-10 fee hike for single cars, but other increases were more exorbitant. Arches National Park in Utah, for example, doubled from $25 to $50. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. Fees for Grand Teton in Wyoming shot up from $5 to $30, and several other prominent parks followed suit. All the more reason to take advantage of the bargain event.

This is a particularly special occasion for the US Parks’ service, since this year marks their centennial anniversary. Even if you miss out on National Park Week, be on the lookout for more celebratory events and free days later in the year. The next chances you’ll get will be: August 24-28th (for the NPS 100th Birthday Celebration), September 24th (for National Public Lands Day), and November 11 (for Veteran’s Day). If you still don’t know where to visit, make use of the NPS’s fantastic park finder here, and enjoy National Parks Week!

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