What to do and where to stay for a weekend in the desert Courtesy of Coachella. Photographed by Calder Wilson. So, you’re making the Herculean venture into the California desert to attend the most highly scrutinized pop cultural event of the year. Coachella is, for better or for worse, the maker and breaker of the zeitgeist, the annals of its history a survey of music, style, food, and brand popularity for each of its (extremely well documented) years.