Somebody asked about the differences between Coachella and UK festivals – 21 huge cultural chasms

Even if you’ve never been to a music festival in Britain, you’ll broadly know how they go: brilliant bands, too much alcohol and an extreme of weather that will either leave you with trench foot or sunstroke. You’ll be grubby and hungover but always having an excellent time.

American festivals, and particularly Coachella, appear to be more like a fashion show-cum-Instagram convention than anything to do with music or, indeed, fun. AskUK subreddit user BlundeRuss has been ruminating on this:

Why does Coachella and other US festivals have such awful, moody vibes compared to UK festivals?

You see clips of Glastonbury and other UK festivals and overall it just seems people having fun and enjoying the music. The people all look a bit scruffy and a bit drunk, but overall just a happy bunch. Then you see Coachella and it all seems so serious and just a dark vibe. So many posers and influencer types too. What’s that all about? Even the acts at Coachella always seem depressed to be there.

And their opinion prompted lots of other people to chip in with their own perplexities around American festivals, like these…

1.

‘Someone said Coachella is the only festival where the phones are pointed at the audience not the bands.’
–VehicleWonderful6586

2.

‘You can drink anywhere at UK festivals. At Coachella, you’re only able to get a beer at a penned-off bar area where you can’t even see a stage. At least it was like this when I went about fifteen years ago. Was a joke of a place.’
–MissionFig5582

3.

‘Also (and maybe it’s a California thing) they just don’t seem to dance at gigs. Me and my Mrs went to see Dry Cleaning in LA and were the only ones having a noticeable good time.’
–MasterpieceAlone8552

4.

‘Coachella seems like an event you go to just to show people you are there. It looks pretty soulless to me, people have their little photoshoot for social media and then scoot off back to their RV for the night.’
–Suddendeath777

5.

‘Weekend 1 is the influencer weekend, weekend 2 is more normal people. But in general, Brits get a bit feral when weather is good and booze is flowing.’
–tdrules

6.

‘I went to Coachella years ago, Snoop and 2pac year, and as a Brit was shocked to find that no drinks were allowed across the festival site only in designated bar areas. This is totally why. Everyone was just smoking weed. To get in bar areas you had to have an age ID band on as drinking age there 21, totally changes the vibe. Very strict on any drinks entering the site even from camp. Was wild.’
–fastcarly

7.

‘The Euro happy-go-lucky woodland fairy mindset versus the Bateman-aspiring-Americuck-of-Wallstreet-for-the-gram mindset.’
–Andries89

8.

‘People go to UK festivals because they want to go to festivals. People go to Coachella because they want to post it on Instagram.’
–pandaaaa26

9.

‘As a Brit who’s been to both, albeit weekend 2 of Coachella which is actually a repeat of weekend 1. There are plenty of people who are at the festival and living the moment but you’re not seeing their experience plastered on social media. Same as anything really. There is a lot less alcohol at Coachella during the day because it’s so hot and you can only drink in designated areas inside the festival grounds. There is loads of after hours parties and drinking in the camping grounds.

On the camping, I love both British festival camping and Coachella camping. The grunge of Brit festivals is unlike anything but Coachella gives you designated space and what this does is let people book loads of space next to each other and they make party zones. When I was there, on one side were two chill stoners and on the side was a group who’d booked several spots next to each other and came with a inflatable hot tub, huge speakers and a little DJ set up. Quite literally partied with them until the sun started to rise.

Genuinely think Coachella gets a bad rep because it’s such an influencer magnet but I would bet anyone who’s has a good time at any festival in England would have a great time at Coachella too.’
–TysonTK

10.

‘Two different cultures. Simple as that.’
–iffyClyro

11.

‘Getting drunk in a temperate, slightly muddy pasture in the English countryside is much more fun than getting drunk in a place so hot and dusty-dry that the towns are either named after water or the heat. Add in Coachella being more restrictive about where you can actually get drunk, and it makes total sense that people are less happy there. Glasto’s also cheaper and due to the better environment it feels like less of a scam overall.’
–Word_Word4Numbers