Coachella 2014: The weekend party recap

By Jessica Gelt

April 14, 2014 12 AM PT

Weekend No. 1 of Coachella is now officially a memory, but weekend No. 2 is careening down the road, gearing up to do it all over again.

If you’re getting ready to partake in the fun and want to find a way to hit some parties, you would do well to start digging up those elusive invites now. Yes, Coachella has expanded into two weekends, but the party scene really hasn’t.

That’s because the parties are extremely expensive to throw. They’re branded platforms with open bars at pricey private estates geared to draw attention to products and fashion labels like Guess, Corvette, McDonald’s, Lacoste and H&M.;

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When the first weekend is over, so are most of the exclusive parties.

A brand wins when it can nab a photo of a celeb trying out its wares. Example? Saturday at the Bootsy Bellows Estate in Rancho Mirage when Leonardo DiCaprio showed up and took a bite out of a McDonald’s Bacon Clubhouse Burger in his private cabana.

At the same party Joe Jonas drove around in a shiny new Corvette Stingray before taking a break from the fast fun to kick it with pal Nina Dobrev.

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The H&M; Loves Music party also saw a slew of celebrity guests, including Jared Leto, Lorde, Kate Bosworth, Florence Welch and Alexander Skarsgard. The evening’s theme was sentimental-suburban -- like a midcentury modern block party with picnic tables and old-school lawn furniture.

Elsewhere over the weekend, Katy Perry, Steven Tyler, Emma Roberts, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff were spotted at the annual Lacoste party, which is always one of the weekend’s funnest shindigs. It featured a mini-golf putt, Patron Popsicles, food trucks, the requisite crystalline pool and a Lacoste pop-up shop.

Valet service was provided by Uber.

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Speaking of which, a word of warning about the buzzy car service: For good reason lots of folks are excited about Uber’s presence in the desert, since cab service during Coachella can be spotty and tough to get.

But Uber employs something called a “surge charge” when demand outstrips supply. That happened on numerous occasions over the weekend when masses of people struggled to get home from parties at 3 or 4 a.m. In this case an 18-mile ride can cost more than $250.

It’s sneaky, too, since there are no meters inside Uber cars and riders don’t realize they might as well have flown home (or to New York) for the price they paid to get back to their hotel until they receive an emailed receipt.

Next weekend you can still get your party on at the Ace, Saguaro and Hard Rock hotels, which are all throwing the same day parties that they did on Weekend No. 1.

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