By Ingrid Chang

Beginning Thursday, April 14 students started packing into cars loaded with sunscreen and water bottles and heading off to Indio.

Attendance numbers dropped as students left Friday morning and peeled off throughout the day to catch bands playing early sets at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Sixty students notified the attendance office on Friday that they would be attending the festival April 15 – 17.

Some shared rooms in hotels while others chose to stay on the campgrounds.

Eli Wininger ’11 went to Coachella for his first time this year and camped out with a few friends.

“Camping was a nonstop party,” he said. “You got to become super close with your friends and made friends with your neighbors.”

This year was Tori Hill’s ’11 first time at the festival as well.

“There were a bunch of different things you could do,” she said. “You could just hang out, look at art, go eat, go into the mosh pit. You never got bored.”

The part that Gaby Cohen ’11 enjoyed the most about the festival was running into her friends. Students from schools all over Los Angeles were at the festival, so even with nearly 100,000 attendees it was not difficult to find a familiar face.

“There were so many people I knew who were there,” Cohen said. “My favorite part was walking around and seeing everyone you nkow and getting to bond with people you don’t usually hang out with.”

Some of the most popular acts that drew the biggest crowds were The Strokes, Kanye West, Nas & Damian Marley, Death From Above 1979, Steve Angello and OFWGKTA (Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All).

A few students with artist and guest passes were able to get the backstage experience. Sam Horn ’11 got artist passes from his dad who is best friends with the tour manager for the band Interpol. Horn’s father surprised him with the passes and took him to the festival as a gift for his 18th birthday.

“It was awesome,” Horn said. “I got there late because I had a game on Friday night. I got to chill inside the barricade where the mixing board was for Chemical Brothers, and I got to go wherever I wanted.”

The best perk of having the artist passes, Horn said, was meeting Daedalus backstage.

“After seeing my favorite show of the entire night, I got to walk back and meet his production manager. And when the set was over I started clapping and started the applause backstage,” Horn said.

However, for some the festival did not go without a hitch. While Max Olshanksy ’11 was climbing a fence to exit the festival, he sliced his pinky finger open on a piece of metal.

“I was helping the girls get over the fence first,” Olshansky said. “I just jumped over the fence and then I heard a rip.”

Olshansky and his friends immediately found a security guard who called the paramedics, who temporarily bandaged up his hand. His friends then drove him to the emergency room, where he had to get 16 stitches.

Luckily, Olshansky was back at the festival the next day.Some students took the day off on Monday following the festival while others drove home on Sunday at all hours of the night.

“I partied until 2 a.m. and woke up at 4 a.m. to drive back to make it to school in time,” Wininger said. “I fell asleep a few times [while driving] and [Ted] Walsh called me out for sleeping in class.”

Hill got sick and missed about a week of school after Coachella.

“I’m going to fail a few tests, but if you’re a second semester senior, it’s worth it,” she said.