Diary: Behind the Scenes at Coachella with Kirby Gladstein

Kirby Gladstein is an experienced music photographer who has shot live music for nearly a decade. Photographing a three-hour concert is one thing, but shooting a two-weekend, six-day music festival brings a different set of challenges.

In her second year as an in-house photographer for Coachella, Kirby hit the desert with a Sony A7R V in tow and gave us a peek behind the scenes of one of the largest music festivals in the world. Over to you, Kirby.

When I started shooting live music in late 2015, I set a quiet little goal (read: massive) to shoot on the Coachella in-house photography team (the pinnacle of festival photo teams, in my opinion). And, to really light a fire inside me, I forbade myself from attending what is widely considered the best music festival in the world until I did so. 

After four years of shooting my butt off, cutting my teeth on smaller festival teams and networking later, I got that golden ticket email… then a global pandemic hit, and Coachella 2020 was canceled. But I hung in there, kept working and was fortunate enough to travel to the desert for its triumphant return in 2022. That original goal was to prove to myself, that making the team wasn’t a fluke. I was ready to do it again in 2023.

Something many new music photographers don’t realize is that artist performances are the tip of the iceberg of what you need to shoot when working on in-house teams. Food, sponsorship activations, merch, production, fashion, art installations, amenities and the atmosphere of the attendees and festival are all crucial components to capture.

Typically, everyone shoots a little of everything with one or two elements to focus on between their assigned sets. Last year, my role on the team emphasized shooting sponsorship content. This year, my days began with coverage of art, atmosphere, fashion and certain aspects of production (rentable lockers, ADA viewing platforms, VIP amenities, etc.) before transitioning to shooting music for the last two-thirds of the day. 

I absolutely loved the assignments that allowed me to roam the site and photograph a bit of everything in some of the chill parts of the festival like the Rose Garden (arguably the most beautiful area on the grounds), the pop-up record store and Despacio — a dark, indoor dance hall playing non-stop grooves helmed by James Murphy. Being a well-rounded photographer who can shoot more than just music is a must.

Regardless of your assignments, one thing everyone on the team is invariably tasked with capturing is the iconic Coachella atmosphere — that surreal feeling of being in an oasis of green grass, music, art and fashion in the middle of a desert. The footprint of the festival is massive and the journey between them is filled with towering art installations. The people attending the festival become works of art themselves, paying meticulous attention to their outfits.

When the sun dips behind the mountains that hug the Coachella Valley and day transitions to night, everything becomes even more electric. Palm trees illuminate. Art that appeared static in the sun comes alive with projection-mapped visuals. The lights and screens of the stages become even more potent. The photo opportunities are endless, which is good because we have only six days to capture the surplus of content needed to market the festival year-round. Showcasing the special atmosphere of Coachella and the humans who attend it is tantamount to capturing the performances.

So much of what makes Coachella spectacular also makes it incredibly challenging. The desert sun is unrelenting. The days are hot and the nights get chilly. The dust kicked up by crowds of 125,000 people coats not only your gear but your airways. Dust storms are always a potential threat. Trekking across the polo fields to make your next set while carrying a couple of camera bodies, lenses, accessories, and a walkie-talkie takes its toll.

And all this is done on pretty limited sleep and squeezing in bites of food when you have the time. To survive, I prioritized taking care of my body whenever I could. Foam rolling and stretching each morning, using a neti pot and a humidifier each night, practically bathing in sunscreen, wearing compression socks and supplementing with electrolytes and ibuprofen throughout the day helped me through the physical rigors of shooting Coachella.

And as tough as it is… it’s worth it. There’s no other festival in the world that pulls together the musicians, art, and experiences Coachella does, and it’s the reason it’s such a deep honor to play a role in documenting it. 

My journey into live music photography didn’t actually begin seven and a half years ago. It began long before when I was just a kid obsessed with music. Amidst all the stress and chaos of the weekend, there were a few moments when that realization came back to me, prompting me just to stop and soak it all in.

There is something truly special about Coachella — not the influencers and celebrities or the Instagram-ability of it all, or anything really tangible (or maybe I just inhaled too much desert dust the past two weeks). Being part of this team and capturing this moment was an experience I will not soon forget... but I have photos just in case.

Along with the Sony A7R V (Read the Sony A7R V review), Kirby had a 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II, a 24-70mm f/2.8 FE, a 16-35mm f/2.8 GM, and a Sony FE 1.4x in her Coachella gear bag.

Interested in shooting a music festival yourself? Check out our guide and visit the MPB Content Hub for more.