"10 Coachella Rules to Live By"

Over the last couple of years, I've learned quite a bit about Coachella. Here are my "Ten Coachella Rules to Live By":

1. If you decide to make the trip to Coachella, make sure you're going with the right people. What I mean by this is that these are long days in the hot sun. You don't want to be with people that are bitching and complaining. Go with people that love music, specifically festivals and can hang throughout the day. You want to be around positive people in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

2. As I just mentioned, it gets HOT. Two years ago, it was over 100 degrees for two out of the three days. Make sure you stay hydrated, take some breaks and get some water. Especially if you're drinking soju & vodkas or beer.....definitely want to mix it up with some H20.

3. Get there early. You don't have to go too early, the festival starts around noon each day but we found that if you show up between noon and 1pm, it's easy to roll in, get a good parking spot, tailgate for a bit and get ready for a long day on the polo grounds. I've heard nightmare stories of people sitting in 2+ hours of traffic and missing some acts they wanted to see. You've got plenty of time in the morning to sleep in, hang out a bit and then head over. This really makes getting in pretty easy. Also, you'll find the entrance lines to the festival pretty short at this time too.

4. If you're trying to decide between getting a hotel room and renting a house, go with the house. If you have enough people, it usually ends up around the same price, but can even be cheaper. You've got a lot more room at a house with multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, family room, etc. We had a pool last year too, which was awesome. There's plenty of places you can stay within 10-15 minutes of the festival. HIGHLY recommended.

5. If you're with a good group of friends, it's a good idea to pool some money together each day at the festival for food and drinks. We had five of us and each threw in some money to a collective pot and whenever we wanted to get something to eat or drink, we just pulled from the pot. Works well if everyone is on board and you're not trying to figure out who spent what.

6. SEE WHATEVER YOU WANT. There's five stages at Coachella (Main stage, Outdoor Stage, Mojave Tent, Gobi Tent and Sahara Tent). You can get to any of those places in a 5-10 minute walk. If your friends want to see one thing and you want to see another, head over and see the band you want. You're not going to get lost and we've split up many times to see certain bands. You're going to have more fun seeing the group(s) you want to see, even if you have to do it alone.

7. Be Friendly. I always love going to festivals because you meet cool people from all over the world. Music is something that brings people together, regardless of your background. Coachella has to have one of the coolest crowds of any music event I've ever been to (and that is A LOT). I've met tons of cool people and some of them have become good friends of mine. It's not hard to treat people well, keep an open mind and you're going to run into some great people.

8. Make sure you catch at least one act in the Sahara Tent. Even if you're not a huge fan of dance/house/techno/etc. music, you're going to have fun in there. We've seen some great acts there.....MSTRKRFT, Fatboy Slim, Benny Benassi, etc. It's a real fun place to see a show, especially when you've got hundreds of people around you going crazy.

9. Don't worry about getting close to the stage. If you're one of those people that "NEEDS" to be up front at a show, I just don't think it's worth it at Coachella, especially if you have to wait around all day for an act you have to see later. There's always room to move around and you can get fairly close to at least be able to see at a reasonable distance. Take some opportunities to see bands that you want to see rather than staking out a place all day for the band coming on at 9pm.

10. HAVE FUN. Enjoy every minute, take nothing for granted. My trips to Coachella have been two of my favorite vacations ever. Awesome times with great friends, it's just as much about the experience as it is about the bands. Anyone that loves music will enjoy this festival. To anyone that's going this year, good luck and have a blast! Hope to see you back there next year.

The show schedules were released today and I'll spend the rest of the week giving my recommendations of bands to see each day.