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Coachella Day 1: Kanye, Seal take the stage

INDIO, Calif. — The first day of this year's Coachella kicked off as planned on a windy Friday in Indio, with symbolic art installations welcoming festival-goers and musicians surprising fans with guests.

The winds were a little blustery throughout the day, but they weren’t anything like the 2014 sand storm that reminded Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme of his teenage years playing in generator parties in the desert.

And the vibe went on. As did the surprises.

Seal, the veteran pop R&B singer, made a surprise appearance with Gallant, the young alternative R&B singer at the Mojave Tent.

"I never do covers," Gallant told the crowd, "but I'm going to do one for you now," before launching into Crazy. Midway through the song, out came the original artist. Seal stuck around to help out his young friend on Weight in Gold.

A$AP Rocky started a little late and then brought out Coachella regular Kanye West at the end. The crowd roared as West entered the stage and sang his song Father Stretch My Hands Part 1. As Kanye walked off and A$AP implored the crowd to give him a hand, the microphones and the lights went out. Set over. The crowd stuck around for a while, awaiting an encore, but that was it.

 

It ended on Kanye’s song, not what we can only assume was supposed to be a final song by A$AP Rocky. Weird. Stunned, the crowd stood waiting. Much like Drake’s Weekend Two shortened performance last year, that left a quizzical crowd standing around, the A$AP fans finally started to stroll away from the stage, realizing no more music would come.

The attitude was that it was Kanye’s fault, but the truth is, the blame probably lies more with A$AP. He started his set late, at least 10 minutes after his scheduled 7:30 p.m. start. So when his closing time came at 8:20 p.m., the microphones and lights were cut off. Coachella is very particular about going over your time, particularly when you’re not the final act.

 

Coachella did its thing on Friday, with VIP ticket buyers wine tasting and imbibing at a rum bar. General admission ticket-holders in off-the-rack Bermuda shorts mixed with high-end fashionistas.

And music lovers from throughout the world landed in the desert -- albeit a desert featuring a polo field of lush green grass surrounded by palm trees. The international visitors were reflective of the many international bands from Europe, Mexico, Australia and Canada on the stages.

Chad French of Labrador, Canada was attracted to the festival for its reputation as the biggest concert in the world, he said. He came with eight friends and was enjoying the vibe from the other festival-goers. The winds didn’t bother him a bit.

“I’m from Labrador,” he said. “I’ve been in weather at minus-50. This is nothing.”

The variety of people at Coachella is as much of a positive attribute of the festival as the variety of music, said Wendy Hsich of Los Angeles. “It’s a very relaxing environment,” she said. “You can do anything.”

The installation art has become a major attraction at Coachella. This year, Poetic Kinetics, the artists who did the iconic astronaut and the crawling caterpillar that turned into a butterfly, were represented at the festival, but an exhibit called Portals, by Phillip K. Smith generated as much selfie photography excitement as the mirrors exhibit did last year. A huge sign made of silk flowers saying “Besame Mucho” wasn’t quite as popular with the cell phone photographers, but visitors said it delivered a good message for the festival.

Raul Galicia and Vanessa Ballejo of Mexico City took photos of themselves in front of the 130-foot-long and 28-foot-high elevated sign on the south end of the Coachella Stage field, but Galicia said they’re just friends and the words, the title of a popular bilingual song that translates to Kiss Me A Lot, didn’t inspire them to kiss for their cameras.

Security guards said it hadn’t inspired a lot of kissing among other couples by late afternoon, either.

But Galicia said they liked the bilingual theme.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s in English, Spanish, German or Japanese,” he said. “It’s the meaning. Love is the message.”

Shad Powers contributed to this story.

 

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