Last Thursday I packed my bags, a tent, sleeping bag and an ice chest into a pick-up truck and drove about 250 miles on the I-10, westbound.
Destination: Coachella Valley Music Festival in Indo, Calif.
This was my fourth consecutive year in attendance, and each experience has been drastically different than the last.
Outside of the wonderful array of music, which headlined Arcade Fire, Kanye West and Kings of Leon this year, the festival is visually striking, almost cartoonish — and the atmosphere is intoxicatingly energetic.
The campgrounds resemble something I imagine the campgrounds would resemble at the Quidditch World Cup, if I could ever score tickets.
Campers compensate for their lack of actual magic with glow sticks and neon lights, crazy costumes and –– surprise, surprise — psychedelic drugs.
The whole thing has a sort of wonderfully beautiful, carnivalesque feel to it. If Mardi Gras and Alice in Wonderland had a child, its name would be Coachella.
But one of the strange new elements that took me by surprise this year had nothing to do with music or the lights or the artwork, but the fact that I felt as if I was one of the only Americans there — Australians and Canadians had overrun Coachella.
The presence of the Canadians was less striking, with Arcade Fire headlining, an indie band from Montreal, and the fact that Canada is not so far away, after all.
But it’s not as though AC/DC was playing. And Australia is much farther to travel (hence the term “Down Under”). So, what were all of these Aussies doing there? Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but it really seemed as though everyone I met greeted me with an “Aye, mate!”
This led to the realization that nearly everywhere I have traveled — internationally and domestically, from California to France — I always seem to run into them.
The simple answer to this question: Australians travel a lot. Some sources report that around 70 percent of them have passports.
Compare that to a July 2008 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which states that only 34% of Americans over the age of 18 have passports.
Talking with one new Australian mate I met at the festival, Luke Ablett Skelton, 21, I asked him why he thought Australians travel so much.
“It is just part of our culture. We’re so isolated, we’re all taught to leave and see how big the world is,” he said. “We all leave Australia. We all travel.”
But what’s also strange is a 2010 report by the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries for the International Trade Administration that’s says Australians ranked ninth on the international visitors list, with just under 1 million for 2010 — compared to 20 million Canadians at the number one spot.
When I asked Skelton why so many Aussies go to Coachella, he replied, “Probably because it’s a good way to let loose.”
Well, perhaps that’s why it seems like Australians are everywhere — they know how to have a good time; they’re the life of the party.
Truthfully, I came back to my schoolwork jealous of the Aussie lifestyle and culture. Unfortunately, Coachella might have given me sunburn, but that won’t change the color of my passport.
Contact Danny at djoconn1@asu.edu
