MF #9
Desert Trip 2016 – Weekend 1
Date
October 6th – 9th, 2016
Location
Indio, California
Reason
Peace Love Tacos
Recovering from Hardly Strictly, Dave spent just a few days with me at Santa Clara before we got in the car and drove down to Coachella. Desert Trip was located at the Indio Polo Fields, the exact same venue as Coachella Music Festival. Coachella has over 100 artists on ~10 stages. Desert Trip had just six artists on one giant stage.
Day one was Bob Dylan followed by The Rolling Stones. Day two was Neil Young followed by Paul McCartney, and on day three The Who opened up for Roger Waters. Six of the greatest rock bands ever were about to take the stage for a true once-in-a-lifetime event.
Our good luck started with entry to the event. We were told we would not be able to camp by our cars and we would have to park and carry our stuff from the parking lot to the camping lot. We showed up relatively late Wednesday night and pulled up to the security checkpoint. We popped the trunk and immediately there was a glass six-pack of Lagunitas staring both us and our security guard in the face. Our security guard told us we couldn’t have it.
Dave handled the bad news with grace. He picked up the 6-pack, quickly handed it to the guard, and said, “Well, I hope you enjoy it. It’s yours now.” That put our security guard in a great mood. He proceeded to open our cooler, which was stuffed with an additional 24 glass beer bottles. Instead of busting us, he ignored the issue and told us to have a good weekend. He then gave us the go-ahead to drive over to the staff lot to drop off our stuff. We met up with our crew only to find out that many had managed to keep their cars with them. We decided to follow suit and quickly set up tents surrounding the car inside the camping lot. We were in.
Thursday was prep and setup day. We spent the day chopping up onions, scallions, and pork, ensuring everything was ready for the weekend. Our booth was inside the venue. Just as we were finishing up, The Rolling Stones took the stage to a completely empty venue. They proceeded to have almost an hour-long soundcheck/pre-show rehearsal. Mick Jagger was calling out changes to the song arrangements, ensuring the entire show would be perfect. The Rolling Stones have been on tour for over 50 years, yet this was the most serious pre-show rehearsal I’ve ever witnessed. Mick Jagger and the entire band are still putting in the work to stay at the very peak of live entertainment.
Friday was the start of the show. The crowd at Desert Trip was unlike any other. General admission tickets were over $500 and the lineup appealed to a different generation of music fans. There were lots of old guys with beautiful younger women, and it wasn’t long until our crew started playing the guessing game – daughter or wife?
While the crowd was a different demographic from your average music festival, the vibes were the exact same. Everyone was there to enjoy the music and to have a good time. Customers immediately took to our tacos and word quickly spread that we had good fresh food available at a decent price.
Bob Dylan came on stage to tremendous applause, but as soon as his show started the crowd immediately quieted down. While Bob Dylan is no doubt a tremendously talented lyricist, his music and voice lack the energy levels I personally look for in artists. If you’re not accustomed to the music, it can come across as downright dreary. Luckily we had a steady line and I was happy to work through this set.
At the conclusion of Bob Dylan, the dinner rush began. There was only about an hour until The Rolling Stones were set to take the stage and naturally, everyone wanted to get food during the break. Our line ballooned to well over 40 people deep. We had 2 people taking orders as quickly as they could and tacos were just flying.
Desert Trip Campground – A Beautiful Venue for a Music Festival!
The music festival taco game is a crazy business. An average 20-foot booth can easily do $100,000 in sales in one three-day festival weekend. BUT, the festival wants its cut of the sales. Desert Trip took ~47% of all sales. They also charged ~$8,000 for the booth rental, setup fees, electricity, and water service all due ahead of time. Food costs can easily be $25,000, labor is another $20,000. Add it all up and the average food vendor owner pockets between $5,000 to $10,000 per event if everything works out perfectly. If it rains, if the event gets canceled, or if people don’t show up the losses can quickly swell into the 5 figures.
The key to a profitable event is the speed of service. When the lines come, you need to push through them as quickly as possible. People should order, pay, and leave with food in 60 seconds or less. When you’re serving food this fast, you can’t focus on anything else. You go into a total flow, both mentally and physically. Our tacos were tasty and simple to make, our booth was efficiently set up in a split-line configuration, and we quickly were racking up both sales and good tips.
The Rolling Stones performing for 70,000 people at Desert Trip Music Festival
The Rolling Stones came on stage and our line quickly dissipated. I received the go-ahead to take 30 minutes and enjoy the Stones. I made my way into the crowd, found a little space to sit down, and packed a bowl.
As I exhaled, I relaxed. I shook off the work vibes and took in the sights and sounds surrounding me. The Rolling Stones were in full swing. Over 70,000 people were along side me. Everyone was fully focused on the performance. As I settled into the show, I started to notice the changes made in the rehearsal the night before. The band never missed a beat. It was spectacular.
Just a few songs later, my 30-minute break was up and it was time to head back to the booth. I expected to work through the entire set, so I was extremely grateful for my extended break. I made my way back to the booth, only to get stuck on dish duty. Luckily, the dish pit was closer to the stage than the booth. I enjoyed a live Rolling Stones performance while I scrubbed the pans, spoons, and knives used in that night’s service. I didn’t care that I was on dish duty. I was getting paid to listen to the Rolling Stones. Everything was perfect.
Saturday was another beautiful sunny day on the festival grounds. While the paying attendees who opted to car camp were sleeping in grass fields, the staff campground was more desert shrubbery. While this had been mowed down for our comfort, horrible little spikes littered the ground. Walking barefoot was not an option. Unfortunately, Dave’s air mattress had been penetrated by a spike in the night. That morning, he went on a quest and managed to get a second air mattress from the festival store at an obscenely inflated price. There was little choice in the matter, as we still had two more nights on the festival grounds and he wasn’t about to sleep on the ground.
We returned to work and enjoyed the Neil Young set. While Neil definitely had more energy than Bob Dylan, I’ve never really listened to Neil Young and I only recognized a few of the songs. It was an enjoyable experience, but I didn’t feel like I was missing out by working in the booth.
We had another massive dinner rush before Paul McCartney, but just like Friday night, as soon as the headline act started the line died. We were contractually obligated to stay open the entire time, so at least two people were always babysitting the booth. Everyone got a chance to go out and catch a few songs. We were planning to stay open and serve the after-show crowd. Very few places had stayed open the night before, and we had gotten the go-ahead from our vendor coordinator to keep serving until midnight. McCartney was set to end around 11 pm, and we made sure the whole crew was back and ready for action at 10:45 pm.
A terrible picture of Paul McCartney at Desert Trip
As a travelling taco booth, we had a sizeable staff speaker as part of the equipment. As soon as the show ended we turned it up loud. While the crowd had enjoyed classic rock all night long, our modern electronic dance music was a total change of pace. The energy in the booth swelled, all the employees were dancing while serving, and our line reflected the energy we were putting out. We were one of the only food places still serving, and people were ecstatic to get their hands on a fresh taco after hours. We crushed the late-night line just as our vendor coordinator was coming by to shut it down. It was one of the most profitable nights of our festival.
Sunday was set to be an insane day. My all-time favorite band is Pink Floyd. If you’re not aware, Roger Waters was the bassist and lyricist for Pink Floyd. He was set to take the stage that night to end the festival. The Who was going to open the show. I had grown up watching concert videos of The Who, and was known to emulate Pete Townshend’s windmill while air guitaring as a young child. In 8th grade, my Dad took me to my first live concert to see The Who at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Today, for the first time in 8 years, I was going to see them perform live.
Dave and I worked pretty much the entire first weekend. As a result, we both requested to be off for a good portion of The Who, which Shappi was happy to grant. Everyone else was requesting off for Roger Waters. We could go to The Who if we held down the booth during Roger Waters. Shappi was planning on having some fun himself and he needed to rely on us.
Dave had proclaimed before the show that he didn’t really get Pink Floyd and was happy to work during that show, so we made the deal. We negotiated that we would get off for Roger Waters the following weekend, and settled into our roles.
The Who played Behind Blue Eyes while the sun set over Desert Trip
The Who played an absolutely stunning sunset set. Behind Blue Eyes was timed with the sunset, and half the crowd faced forward watching the show while the other half looked back as the sun set over the desert mountain range. Shout out to Claire Global for the sound system. Sound left the stage as a continuous wave, sweeping over the crowd. The numerous delay towers were timed perfectly and the entire field sounded crystal clear no matter where you were standing.
It was the last day at a music festival. All the campers had run out of food and our dinner rush was wild. The vibes in the booth were at an all-time high, as a good number of people were about to go party at Roger Waters. About 30 minutes before the start of Rogers set, B-Ray called me to the back of the booth. He and Phil were taking some acid and they wanted to know if I wanted a little gel tab.
He looked me in the eyes and directly asked, “Can you handle it? We need you to work.” I was confident in my ability to maintain my cool, and I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to trip to Pink Floyd. I ate the gel tab and returned to my duties on the line.
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD or acid, is an insanely powerful psychedelic drug. Typically, it will take between 30-45 minutes to begin feeling the effects, which can include auditory and visual hallucinations. Luckily, my job was extremely easy. I was warming tortillas, putting about 20 of them on a flat-top grill for about 15 seconds on each side.
Things started to get interesting when the tortillas started to dance. As they warmed up, they would dance faster and faster. I had lost complete track of time, but my tortillas were coming out at the right speed – I mean temperature.
B-Ray calls for help. He too was feeling the effects of the acid, but he was dealing with an entire grill of chicken that was about to go from cooked to burned. I jumped into action, grabbed an empty hotel pan, and helped him get the chicken off the grill and into a serving container.
I got a call to refill the rice, so I headed to our warming station and grabbed a full pan of rice to refill the line. When I opened the rice, the rice grains were moving like insects. The rice looked very much alive, and it was rather unsettling. I shook my head, reminding myself that it was just the acid, and went to refill the pans. Doing the simplest task became the biggest challenge.
While normally one might expect to get fired for being on drugs at work, our boss Shappi was working his way through a handle of vodka and was already on his way to see Roger Waters. Pretty much anything goes when you’re serving tacos at a music festival.
Luckily, Roger Waters came on stage and our line quickly dissipated. We had survived the night! I got put on dish duty, something I was happy to do as the dishpit was closest to the stage. While I started on the dishes, I quickly got distracted by the astounding performance occurring on stage.
Nobody was watching me, so I just walked out of the food vendor area and into the crowd. I walked into the field, sat down, and watched two amazing songs before deciding to head back to the booth. When I got back to the booth, Dave was looking for me. I thought he might be mad, but he just wanted to go watch the show too!
We had our last remaining coworker cover the booth while we went and caught another three songs. Dave was entranced by the music, but he was in a much more responsible mindset and made the call on heading back to the booth. We did our duty and held down the booth for the rest of the show, receiving much praise from our boss on his return.
We cleaned up, wiped everything down, and packed up for the weekend. We had just survived Desert Trip Weekend 1. Everyone was full of energy, mostly due to the psychedelic drugs, so we all went and partied in the campsite.
Dave and I woke up the next morning, said our goodbyes to Shappi, got paid and headed for my friend’s parents’ house in San Diego to recover.
It’s good to have great friends. Luckily, my friend Matt has pretty much adopted me into his family, who are all fantastic people. I had spent the previous summer working on his brother’s house up in Idaho and was there when his family all came to visit. They are extremely kind, open, and generous people. We needed a place to stay near Coachella for a few nights, and Matt’s parents opened their ocean-view house in Cardiff to me and my friend Dave allowing us to stay free of charge for the two nights we would be in town.
If you can’t afford a hotel, borrow your friend’s parent’s house.
When we got to Matt’s house, I expected to see his parents. Instead, his brother Daniel opened the door. He was excited to see me, said hello to Dave, and told me he had something for me. He handed me my Pink Floyd shirt that I had unknowingly left in Idaho. I had looked everywhere in my house before driving down to Desert Trip, upset that I couldn’t find my favorite Pink Floyd shirt. Now, I was reunited with my shirt in time for weekend #2.
We met up with Matt’s sister Taryn and her husband Eddie and had a fantastic sushi dinner. It was at dinner when Daniel told us an amazing story. Apparently, Daniel had received acid in the mail that was delivered inside of a book. He had ordered 30 tabs, but when the book showed up there were only 27. Daniel didn’t think much of getting shorted and ended up taking that book on the airplane from Idaho to San Diego for some light reading. On the airplane, Daniel turned a page and a little slip of paper slid out. The guy next to him pointed and said, “I think you dropped something.” Daniel picked up the sliver of paper to discover three Guy Fawkes tabs. He quickly put the strip back in the book, and he was now in San Diego with unwanted acid in his possession.
We offered to take it off his hands and quickly came to a deal. Our trip to San Diego was a massive success. I had my Pink Floyd shirt, we had supplies, and were ready for weekend #2.