The best and worst of Coachella 2016

Coachella is considered by many as the Holy Grail of Stateside festivals and it's difficult to avoid knowing exactly what makes up the three-day, two-weekend extravaganza. We've all heard the quips about celebrities in the desert, frolicking alongside regular festival attendees, the guessing game around which surprise guests will come out for major acts (and always fruitlessly hoping for Daft Punk) and of course, the blazing hot sun.

This year, like most, Coachella delivered yet another diverse and widely clairvoyant roster of talent across the board. From the underground-centric Yuma tent to the glitzy main stage, Coachella offers a different experience in its every crevice. Mixmag got down and dirty in the desert this weekend to see what the hype was all about and came out with a tan, a bit of a dust cough and a list of the best and worst of the weekend.

Despite the fact that Coachella has been a longtime supporter of dance music even before the EDM boom (Paul Oakenfold and Fatboy Slim were top-billed headliners in 2001), the past few years of the festival have seen major attention mainly thanks to the unofficial electronic tent - the Sahara. Big time or crossover acts have occasionally managed to escape the covered tent and debut elsewhere on the festival grounds, and this year seemed to cement the trend and end the need for a solely "EDM"-centric venue.

The need for dance music to exit in both the Sahara and the Yuma tents demonstrates the direction in which electronic acts are heading. Expanding beyond dark, pulsing club environments and LED screen bubbles, 2016's acts showcased a new extension of electronic music by incorporating newly incorporated elements. Dubfire made quite the impression with the debut of his live audio visual HYBRID set up in the Mojave tent while live newcomer band Rufus Du Sol lured in a packed crowd to the Gobi tent and had the entire audience singing along to their every song.

Coachella's main stages were the unfortunate home to where electronic music failed to make a favorable impression. Zedd, a confusing booking for the festival's carefully selected roster of current, buzz-worthy talent took to the Outdoor Stage against anticipated rap throwback Ice Cube. Most headlines reported Kesha's surprise appearance as the highlight of the producer's show. At least they weren't M&Ms, right?

The festival closed out with Calvin Harris gracing the main stage, yet another controversial booking, seeing as the Scottish talent can be seen pretty much any weekend in Las Vegas. Though there were whispers of his plan to unveil new music during the set, the Sunday night slot saw Calvin playing out most of his older hits like 'Sweet Nothing' and 'Outside', a gentle reminder of an era when Calvin Harris was more appropriately placed on the main stage. However, most of his classic hits were remixed with aggressive drops that had people going three or four years ago and left most wondering if he had changed his set up at all since his last performance at the festival in 2014.

The highlights of Calvin's show? A surprise appearance from Rihanna, who came out to sing 'We Found Love' live alongside the producer and of course, his famed girlfriend Taylor Swift rocking out to his set in the front row.

Here Active Listening presented itself as a brand new music technology earlier this year and was given the special honor of being promoted in Coachella's ticket boxes. Though the earbuds have yet to go on sale, the brand set up a booth in the festival's VIP Rose Garden to allow attendees to experiment and try the technology out for the first time.

Paired with a smartphone app, the wireless earbuds allow users to tune live EQ levels and even select customized settings for each Coachella stage. With the ability to boost bass levels, live mix and add reverb or echo and even suppress background chatter without foregoing the voice of your friend right next to you, Here took advantage of the perfect aural environment at Coachella to show what the next chapter of wearable technology can do for the next generation's concert goer.

With a sold-out capacity of over 99,000 people, there's guaranteed to be a bit of wait time to enjoy the festival. Yet with 17 years under its belt, the festival still seems to fail on eliminating wait times for the average festival goer, first making them wait in a car line to park, then in the first security check-point to enter into the camp grounds, then again to enter the actual festival.

And while most complain when anticipated acts are stacked against one another upon set time announcements, usually the divide between crowds allows each respective audience to breathe. This year, the festival had fewer schedule conflicts than usual between artists of the same interest group, making certain crowds impossible to navigate during peak moments as hordes of people attempted to push forward into the crowd.

Want to grab one of the Instagram-worthy treats from Coachella's famed food line ups? Be prepared to wait even longer - for the famous bright blue ice cream donut from Afters, the line never dwindled past a solid hour wait.

Every year, Coachella lands in mid-April, making it a perfect platform for many artists to pair their performances with big announcements like tours, releases and of course, the all-anticipated albums. More than a handful of artists followed that exact track path this year, including Dirtybird's Justin Martin who released his sophomore release 'Hello Clouds' on April 20 in between both Coachella weekends. Massive tracks from his new album like 'Back To The Jungle' played out to a packed Yuma tent and received an enormous response.

Elsewhere, Norwegian artist Lido kept to his promise to perform his entire upcoming album 'Everything' for his performance in the Gobi tent. Seated at a piano, Lido was eventually joined by guest performer Jaden Smith for a new track, making for one of the more surprising collaborations unveiled over the weekend.

Hip hop group Run the Jewels made quite the splash for their daytime set on Coachella's main stage when none other than Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders appeared on the stage's massive LED screens to help introduce the act prior to their set.

Killer Mike of the group has been a vocal supporter of Sanders' campaign and it seems as though the senator decided to return the support in time for Coachella. But for many, the festival is meant to be an escape from the anxiety-inducing realm of politics, so let's hope that we leave any other political candidate mentions and appearances behind in weekend one.

One of the strangest headlines that made rounds after Coachella's first weekend was definitely the story of at least 10 festival goers that attempted to file their taxes through the mail on the campgrounds of Coachella.

Why they waited until one of the most chaotic festivals of the year to file taxes - and especially why through snail mail? We may never know.

Unfortunately for many, reports of massive and aggressive pick-pocketing throughout the festival came to light after the festival weekend wrapped. People took to online forums to report noticing suspicious looking folk wandering the ground falsely dressed as security guards while roaming the crowd looking for loose iPhones and wallets as dozens of hopeful requests for lost smart phones came through Coachella's official Facebook page.

Though there's no one certain way to deter a pick-pocket, especially in a massive crowd like those at Coachella, it's best to keep belongings securely tucked away or close to your body.

Well known and trusted for their ability to curate a rightfully flavored line up, The Do Lab has remained a mainstay at Coachella year after year. 2016 was no different as the collective presented its own line up to match against the festival's main headliners. The Do Lab continued its tradition of saving "surprise appearances" to close out each day of the festival and brought a proper mixture of old and new. What So Not brought Friday to a close while The Glitch Mob took to the stage for a special throwback set, leaving Sunday with a double dosage of surprise appearances, first with Rufus Du Sol and later with Bob Moses.

The Coachella tradition of surprise appearances are usually a highlight of most sets, but unfortunately for Kanye West, his presence was lackluster and rather disappointing. Despite releasing 'The Life of Pablo' not too long ago, the rapper never once performed despite appearing once during A$AP Rocky's set and then later during Jack Ü.

Hilariously enough, though Kanye attempted to rap during A$AP's set, his mic was muted and both rappers were forced to shrug it off and exit the stage to silence. Kanye later walked out on stage for Jack Ü as they played his tune 'Power', but did merely stood on the stage and waved.

[Photos courtesy of Coachella]

Valerie Lee is Mixmag's West Coast Editor and has plenty of Instagrams with a Ferris Wheel in the background. Follow her on Twitter here