The Sahara Tent has grown this year at Coachella. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)
Despite this being my fourth Coachella festival, I had never been inside the infamous Sahara Tent before. What better chance than Moby’s DJ set Saturday night, April 13?
It was fun. Really fun. And not exactly what I expected based on some preconceived notions.
It’s my first year helping to cover Coachella for The Press-Enterprise and PE.com, so festival guru Vanessa Franko gets to tell me what to do. She thought it would be fun to see how I liked the Sahara Tent. So in I went.
In case you’re not familiar with it, the Sahara Tent is “the mecca of electric dance music at Coachella,” as Vanessa succinctly describes it. It’s also pretty widely known as a three-day rave.
I don’t know much about EDM. I do know who Moby is, but honestly, the first thing that comes to my mind is the awesome Not Moby episode of “How I Met Your Mother.” And I’m not a raver — but I do love to dance.
As the set was starting, I managed to get around to a not-too-crowded spot and squeeze into the tent. I was sort of blown away by the view. The tent (which is bigger this year than in years past) looks like an airplane hangar, and the whole front is just massive screens that showed a mesmerizing LCD light show that accompanied the music. There were even a couple of screens on the ceiling.
Over the next hour, I worked my way to almost front and center as the music thumped and the huge crowd danced. It was basically like being in a nightclub. Except instead of being out with friends, I was solo, and working. And, you know, the DJ was Moby.
It wasn’t as hot inside as you might think; after dark a good wind kicked up and cooled off the tent. But during the heat of the day, it must be brutal in there, as the million crushed empty water bottles coating the ground attest to. (Note to anyone looking for bottles to recycle!)
I definitely saw some people who were on something. (Like one fellow who was sort of marching in place, not exactly to the beat of the music, staring vacantly at the screens and waving his hand in front of his face.) But not as many as I expected. Maybe because Moby drew in people who wouldn’t usually be in the Sahara Tent? Or maybe the bacchanalian reputation of the tent is overblown. But then again, organizers do put a medic tent right next door …
Moby’s set ended with an adrenaline rush of a climax. As I walked out of the tent to leave the club kids to their party, I was glad I had joined it for an hour or so.