The local community gets involved in numerous ways with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Hundreds of locals work both weekends to make the festival run smoothly; some local musicians and artists bring their talents; and a small handful of local businesses serve festival-goers onsite.
This year, Everbloom Coffee was featured inside the main food court area, known as the Indio Central Market, along with more than a dozen other restaurants from locales ranging from Los Angeles to New York City. The little shop from Indio had a booth labeled “COFFEE” and served lattes, cold brews, matcha, chai and water.
I spoke with Fausto Figueroa on Sunday. He was working the booth, but he’s not a normal Everbloom employee. He explained how he ended up serving coffee at Coachella.
“I’ve been working in coffee for the past two years,” Figueroa said. “I was working at Sixth Street Coffee in Coachella prior, and as soon as I resigned from Sixth Street, the opportunity of working at Coachella fest came about. Being a lover of coffee, (when I got the) opportunity to work one of the biggest festivals in the world and serve coffee, I was like, ‘Well, why not go ahead and pursue this opportunity?’”
Apart from providing coffee, Figueroa and other workers were spreading the word about Everbloom and its physical shop in Indio. He shared that many attendees, after learning that the shop was in Indio year-round, were “surprised.”
“Most of the vendors are from the L.A. area, Orange County or San Diego, so to work in a shop or in a business that’s from the area, it really stands out,” Figueroa said. “People are surprised when we tell them the business itself has a brick-and-mortar, a shop of its own, in the local area. … They talk about how they come here all the time, but they never find a good coffee shop, so that’s pretty cool.”
Coffee sells surprisingly well at Coachella. It was in the mid-90s when I spoke to Figueroa, and people were still purchasing coffee over water. For some, caffeine helps them get through the weekend’s three packed, 12-hour days.
“Coachella is a world in itself,” Figueroa said. “… Coachella caters to people’s different interests. The same way that there’s lemonade, the same way that there’s pressed juice, the same way that there’s wings and waffles, pizza and cocktails, there’s coffee. Just being able to explore that is super-fascinating, because I feel like coffee is underrated.”
I asked Figueroa what other businesses could be a festival fit.
“There are great taco places, great coffee places, great pizza places—there’s a little bit of everything for everyone,” Figueroa said. “It takes a lot of initial investment upfront from a business to go ahead and be in this space. Sixth Street Coffee, Bill’s Pizza, El Tranvia—these are local places that are in my everyday orbit that I could totally see in these spaces.”
Figueroa said he was happy that Everbloom was on festival grounds “paving the way.”
“They’re one of the only shops here that is local,” he said. “It shows that, although Coachella caters to an international audience, it can also cater to a local business. It brings the question of how can businesses like Everbloom inspire local businesses and local entities to bring in their voice and their resources for something so big that brings a lot to the valley.”
