JONPAUL DOUGLASS GETS A TASTE OF COACHELLA

For its 2023 music festival, Coachella commissioned Jonpaul to capture the flavor of the two-weekend event that takes over the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, this past April. And they welcomed him to riff on it in his trademark style. Here, he explains how it all went down…

“The Coachella team really liked my ‘Pizza in the Wild’ project, so I sort of used it as inspo and ran around Coachella shooting everything very simply ‘as is,’ which was the whole vibe of the pizza project. 

I teamed with my stylist and friend Anna Geisslinger to help me set up little Coachella food moments all around the festival. We would start our day the moment the gates opened. The food pop-ups would also open, and they would be ready and happy for us to photograph their food. :)"

"This was both my and Anna’s first time visiting Coachella, so we were really pumped. I was super excited just to see and feel what I've always only felt through the YouTube livestream(which is so excellent). 

(I was also excited to see a certain artist that ending up dropping off weekend two, but we don't need to get into that.) 

Once we arrived at the festival, the friendly Coachella team gave us the full download on the festival inner workings, what to do, and more importantly what not to do. They also entrusted us with a golf cart to get around, which seemed to be one of the highest honors for a festival worker. 

During the day, we simply went around to the endless vendors. Sometimes we would eat the food, and sometimes we would use it to bribe people to hand model for us. Whenever night would fall, we would watch a couple of bands before beating the traffic out to get some nice rest, dad style."

Fun Facts

The main image Coachella used of ours during weekend two was of an influencer who made her own clothes (top row, middle). People were loving her outfit, which was cool. She ate that ice cream, lol. 

Best food: Hattie B's hot chicken. 

Best artist I saw: Rosalia without any question whatsoever. 

I’m a new fan of: Dominic Fike. We watched his soundcheck, and to hear him saying silly stuff between performances was so fun. 

I’m also a new fan of: Los Bitchos. They’re like the new Khruangbin.

I sadly missed the Garden and Yves Tumor, but I did walk by Yves Tumor backstage and I saw Four Tet getting a snack at catering.