How Festivalgoers With Chronic Illnesses Navigate Coachella

I did not go to Coachella prior to establishing a mysterious illness, and now, portion of me fears I under no circumstances will. The relentless Indio solar is daunting even for ready-bodied persons, but the undiagnosed autoimmune sickness rendering me blind in one eye will make the heat especially intolerable. As I browse by means of the festival’s best-tier lineup, all I can consider about is the slew of meds I might have to carry all over the campgrounds, the danger of dehydration, and the tens of countless numbers of measures standing among me and my sought after venues. (This calendar year, some phases are approximately a mile aside from one particular one more.)

Coachella ADA services present lodging like obtainable shower regions, assisted listening gadget methods, sensory assist luggage, and campsites nearer to the competition grounds for all those who want them, but for people today with persistent disorders, it can be not always ample to make a key new music festival well worth it. Nonetheless — and although every single situation is distinct, so people today should often check with with their health care provider for customized professional medical guidance — there are means to navigate Coachella with a persistent disease.

To get a far better perception of how, or what that may possibly glimpse like, we spoke with seasoned Coachella attendees about how they managed their personal persistent health problems at Coachella, and no matter whether or not they believe it really is really worth the inconvenience.

If You Can, Prep For the Situation

Just like no chronic ailment presents alone the identical, there is no just one-size-matches-all approach to preparing for Coachella. That reported, there may well be a several points you can do ahead of time to make the competition extra pleasant.

“I truly coach for Coachella like an athlete trains for a marathon,” states Kait Gardner, a attractiveness YouTuber who frequently shares her working experience with situations like hypermobile EDS, POTS, and dysautonomia. This calendar year marks her fifth Coachella, and she’s been in entire preparing-manner for the previous 4 months. “When you have hypermobile EDS, your joints have a really challenging time keeping everything together. What that suggests is a large amount of ache, and so, if my muscle groups are not incredibly powerful, then I’m likely to have a incredibly difficult time strolling the 40,000 measures [at Coachella].”

To give herself a improved shot at experiencing the pageant easily, Gardner does every little thing from wander schooling to power schooling, step by step lifting heavier weights to get ready her muscle tissue for the celebration. She even exposes herself to warmth a couple months in advance in an effort and hard work to enhance her warmth tolerance. “You will find a lot that goes into the prep for [Coachella], and that’s for me to be equipped to have a excellent time and consider to cut down the suffering that I am in, and attempt to increase my endurance,” Gardner states. “[Music is] like my whole world . . . if I misplaced this, I would have practically nothing.”

Holly Fowler can relate to this passion, attending Coachella in 2019 as a music lover with ulcerative colitis. “Absolutely everyone, continual health issues warriors integrated, ought to have to go and have an astounding time at Coachella,” she suggests. “With a little little bit of exploration and probably a minor outreach from the organizers, you can have an awesome experience.”

Tailor Your Packing List For Your Requires

Think about this permission to scroll previous each individual generic “Coachella packing list,” for the reason that everyone’s appears to be distinct centered on their have specific desires. Gardner, for instance, has mastered the artwork of packing for Coachella. Some of her essentials consist of orthopedic inserts for her footwear, loose clothes — “you’ve obtained to make positive that you are considering about what you happen to be going to put on in conditions of comfort and ease,” she claims — and a portable neck lover that blows neat air and rates like an Apple iphone. Mint and glycerin cooling patches are a much more topical cooling solution that act like a variety of moveable moist washcloth (Gardner received hers from Amazon). Moreover this equipment, Gardner works by using KT tape to hold her joints in position and decrease some of the knee suffering triggered by her hypermobility.

Just a note on packing your meds: Coachella ordinarily enables prescription medication as lengthy as it is really in the primary container with your identify on it (matching the title on your ID). Gardner states she’s only at any time experienced an problem with her salt pills, which maximize blood quantity and assistance avoid fainting, but it generally has not been an difficulty at Coachella. The ADA site notes that prescription drugs should be cleared by the professional medical group, and you can constantly check with a crowd management supervisor to assist you find a member of the health care staff upon arrival.

Take into account Alternative Transportation

In 2019, Fowler remembers using a “bicycle taxi” from the campgrounds to the location gates. (This is most very likely referring to these pedi taxi services.) In 2024, nonetheless, the Coachella ADA internet site pointed out that available cart expert services are out there — with shuttles to entrances, exits, parking, accessible showers, and accessible campgrounds — but in the interest of public security, they do not push within the Coachella competition grounds. To use the shuttle, you want an accessibility wristband, which are issued on-web site by the on-internet site accessibility services hubs. Assume wait occasions of up to 40 minutes.

“In some cases I just you should not go to reveals since I know that it can be heading to be far too considerably for me to wander all the way to that location,” Gardner claims. “There’s no golf cart support that I can get. I have never found a golf cart. I’ve under no circumstances viewed individuals staying transported between phases.” It may possibly nevertheless be a possibility (Coachella encourages people to reach out to [email protected] for any supplemental accessibility-connected requirements), but generally talking, there are not quite a few choices for transportation within just the competition grounds. Specified packages, which include the safari campgrounds, appear with golfing cart transportation among phases, but it really is promoted as extra of a luxurious, somewhat than an accessibility-similar useful resource (and it’s going to run you upward of $9,000).

Realizing that it’s a prolonged day of walking in the very hot sun, consider to conserve your energy appropriately, using breaks when important, and locating areas with shade, air conditioning, and h2o. You might also want to acquire the a variety of venues into thing to consider when preparing out your concert itinerary.

Plan Your Foods Ahead of Time

There are loads of meals carts on the grounds at Coachella, but the alternatives aren’t constantly inclusive of precise nutritional requires. In these situations, it can be useful to approach ahead.

“I did a whole lot of investigation figuring out what to pack to try to eat all of our meals — which truly, I genuinely preferred, for the reason that I experienced manage about all of my food items,” Fowler states. This manufactured a significant difference since ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel situation that impacts digestion, so the food you try to eat plays a massive role. Whilst Coachella frequently isn’t going to enable you to convey your have food stuff into competition grounds, there are numerous gluten-free, dairy-free of charge, and vegan meals distributors, in accordance to the ADA site. “I had my treats, but I also ate at the festival,” Fowler suggests. “They experienced a great deal of distinctive types of food possibilities, so that was a optimistic. And I wasn’t pressured about not becoming ready to try to eat.”

Gardner agrees that festival meals panic is actual (if you might be not organized). “[As] portion of obtaining hypermobile EDS and dysautonomia, you have a ton of GI complications, and then it’s challenging to command almost everything that you might be ingesting due to the fact you are not cooking at a festival,” she says. “So I normally carry my GasX, my Advil, my Pepto Bismol, my Tums, all of the items, just in scenario.” You can speak to [email protected] for additional facts about nutritional desires and distinct suppliers.

A Be aware on Examining Into the Pageant

Because there is no way to notice your accessibility desires for the duration of the pre-occasion registration and Coachella does not market distinct “accessibility tickets,” you can need to have to sign up appropriately on-web page. “Receiving in and out of the competition is the hardest component,” Gardner claims. “[I] asked for a minimal cart to acquire me into the pageant and skip the mile walk in, but in order to wait for that cart, I experienced to stand in the heat for 20 minutes.” Gardner says she also experienced some issues getting her ADA wristband on-site since she appears to be ready-bodied.

“They never want to give a ton of persons wristbands due to the fact they want to make positive the men and women who really need to have it are heading to get it, and I totally have an understanding of that. But I did have to combat for it a little little bit,” she claims. Gardner experienced a doctor’s observe ready to go, which immediately solved the challenge, but she claims this is one particular of the a lot more tense parts of the Coachella expertise as a individual with long-term health issues.

Know The place to Go In the course of the Pageant

After you get into the competition, there are much more sites to seem for shade, to start with assist, and air conditioning, like specific distributors and pop-ups, the place you can hold out if you want a break from the warmth. Some venues are also indoors, such as the Yuma and Sonora tents. “Individuals are form of what I lean on as my very own personalized little ADA,” Gardner suggests. “The ADA seating is pretty restricted, and if you have a whole lot of persons likely who have an ADA wristband, if you you should not get there early ahead of a display, you will not have obtain to a seat.” She provides that the ADA seating is also extremely much back again, and generally provides really minor shade, which is not great if you struggle with heat intolerance.

Fowler claims she had a excellent time all round, but the heat also proved to be 1 of the major issues. The good news is there are drinking water stations all all-around the festival, which she made use of to fill up her camelback and stay hydrated all over the working day. To control her electricity, Fowler planned her working day around artists with smaller sized crowds, locating times to sit (when probable), and leaving early to get additional rest. “Most of the time we failed to even see the headliners simply because they wouldn’t come on until finally 11 or 12 and we were fatigued, so I was finished by 10, 10:30 every single night,” Fowler says. “I was continue to genuinely drained, from what I can try to remember, and necessary a several times to recuperate.”

So, Is It Truly worth It?

Whilst each individual human being is unique, both Fowler and Gardner agree that their Coachella activities ended up truly worth the excess planning. “It is genuinely the ideal experience that I’ve at any time professional,” Gardner claims. “And so even while there are these challenges, and even although it usually takes a large amount of energy, it is really so well worth it for me.”

Chandler Plante is an assistant editor for POPSUGAR Health & Health and fitness. Earlier, she labored as an editorial assistant for Men and women journal and contributed to Ladygunn, Millie, and Bustle Electronic Team. In her free of charge time, she overshares on the internet, creating material about long-term health issues, attractiveness, and incapacity.