Coachella - Many Weeks Later

We went to the Coachella Festival back at the end of April. We were taking a risk and bringing our son, Brandon. I wrote a blog entry and promised to follow up on this the next day, but never got around to that.

Here is a quick update about that trip.

I've been to nearly every Coachella and didn't want to stop this year. Denise and I look forward to it every year and it is something that we share together. We didn't want that to change and we had also been wondering how to travel with our new son. It was as much of an experiment as it was an annual pilgrimage.

In a nutshell, it was... different.

We usually cut loose, hang out with friends, dance all night, and revel in the greatest music in the most spectacular setting. This year, not so much.

Turns out when you bring a 5 month old to a festival blasting mega sound do tens of thousands of people, you have to amend your traditional practices. (For all of you out there who think I'm a terrible father, please know that I write this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek!). We arrived at the festival after the sun set each day to escape the heat and we hoped the little guy would sleep as long as possible. We bought him some groovy headphones so that the sound wouldn't bother him and we rolled him through the crowds in a heavy-duty off road-ready stroller.

When he was awake, he seemed to dig it. He loved all the people and the general revelry. It was amazing watching the festival through his eyes, because it was all just a collection of new images, sights, and sounds. He and I watched My Morning Jacket and Love & Rockets together and Denise would cruise him around the grounds keeping him calm and helping him drift in and out of sleep.

We stayed each night for a couple of hours and then headed home. On Saturday night we probably stayed a bit too long, but I wanted him to see at least a few minutes of Prince so that he could someday tell his friends that his first concert was Prince at Coachella when he was 5 months old. Prince went on very late and we just kept trying to hang in there. At 11:15pm Prince hit the stage, Brandon perked up from his nap in mommy's Baby Bjorn, looked at the stage, looked at me, and then went back to sleep.

So little B, it is official. You saw Prince, My Morning Jacket, Love & Rockets, Roger Waters, and many more when you were 5 months old. I hope when you are old enough to brag about this, it will be as important to you as seeing The Who and the Clash together was for me.