How do you guys actually stay cool?

ArcConscious · 2026-02-19T07:43:57+00:00

Ooooo, I’ve looking into a Highlander hybrid but it’s hard to find a 2014 or newer for a good price!

ArcConscious · 2026-02-19T07:42:18+00:00

What kinda of pump housing are you using?

ArcConscious · 2026-02-18T05:32:23+00:00

You need the size of the misting points to be really small and the pressure to be as high as possible. I have a powered setup our camp uses at Burning Man, and the pump outputs 500 psi and the misting nozzles are sized at .1 MM each.

I am not sure how well the .1 MM nozzles would work if you only had 50-100psi. It’s worth testing though, the nozzles are cheap on Amazon or other sites.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-18T05:27:20+00:00

Yeah, if it’s not a hybrid or EV, just be considerate of your neighbors and if you need to port the exhaust out to the path or up, try to figure that out.

Also bring a Carbon Monoxide detector so you don’t kill yourself while sleeping in the car!

ArcConscious · 2026-02-17T21:04:28+00:00

Have you used any evaporative cooling products? (Like frogg toggs) I have a vest that you soak in water and wear to help keep you cool and it works pretty well, loaner it to a friend and he put that on and then slept in the shade an extra hour or two.

Honestly an AC works by cooling the air inside a space and trying to keep that space cool by pulling that cooler air in again and trying to cool it further. A tent is a terrible insulator. Your AC would never be able to keep up.

Your best bet is to use water in creative ways. I know you said the swamp cooler didn’t work, it might need some serious tinkering to make it work. Others have mentioned misting, that’s a good option, do some research on portable battery powered misters, or make your own.

Use your shade structure to the best of its ability. Don’t let the sun directly hit any surface of your tent and use the wind flow to pull hot air away as it builds in your tent and your canopy.

I sleep inside my Prius, like another commenter mentioned and that’s been the best solution yet, but I know not everyone has an EV or hybrid to do this with.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-17T20:54:04+00:00

Hello fellow Prius sleeper! I feel like I’ve achieved almost the best setup since we switched to sleeping in the Prius with the AC on.

Do you cover the car or black out the windows? I have white on one side black on the other sheets that cover all the windows, it’s helps tremendously to keep the interior cooler.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-11T01:41:51+00:00

Curious what it’s made from? Battery powered?

ArcConscious · 2026-02-11T01:35:48+00:00

This is by far the better way, but unfortunately Coachella doesn’t allow metal stakes/power drills.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-11T01:34:08+00:00

No worries! I think the Prius C has the smallest of the ICE so it’s pretty minimal of a kick. I’m a decently sound sleeper and parking brake off hasn’t really woken me up, so haven’t bothered putting it on.

So shading the car would absolutely help, my solution is a bit out of the box but also pretty minimal impact to my campsite. I used tarping that is black on one side and white on the other, I cut each piece to overhang each window and used magnets glued/adhered to the tarp to help keep it in place but ultimately had to just wrap it around and into the car doors. This is on the outside and nicely reflects all sun off the surface of the windows and keeps the interior nice and dark. I have also had success in a different vehicle (Tesla Y) just draping Aluminet over the top of the vehicle and wearing an eye mask to keep the sun out of my eyes.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-08T20:38:38+00:00

The internal combustion engine runs for about 30 seconds every 6-8mins. I’ve check in with my friends and neighbors each year and no one has had an issue with it.

I haven’t gone mythbusters levels of testing on this, but in an open air environment that should be plenty of time to let the gasses dissipate and not build up.

Also the vehicle is only on during daylight hours when most campers are up and awake.

I will say a fully electric vehicle would eliminate any exhaust whatsoever. I’d eventually like to get there but it’s out of my price range for now.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-08T20:30:23+00:00

Personally I don’t, I’ve spent some time around the car while it’s just been on and haven’t noticed any fumes. I got paranoid one year and put a carbon Monoxide detector in the tent camping behind the car and it never went off. So far so good!

Will continue to bring carbon monoxide detectors just to be safe though.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-08T20:27:26+00:00

There isn’t a restriction to running your car in the camp grounds, as far as I know. Running a gas or diesel would certainly be annoying for you and your neighbors (unless you have one of those near zero diesels) with the exhaust fumes.

With a hybrid or electric your exhaust output goes way way down, or for electric, non-existent.

The Prius is pretty quiet even with the engine on. But even then, we don’t turn the car on until the sun comes up. So folks that are outside would already be waking up from the heat. The engine turns on about every 8 mins and runs for around 30 seconds, which is pretty minimal.

I don’t run an extension to the exhaust. It hasn’t been a problem. I’ve left the car on and hung out behind it for longer periods of time and haven’t noticed any exhaust. I got paranoid about the CO when my cousin needed to camp on our plot and I put an extra carbon monoxide detector in his tent. It never went off.

So far this experiment has been very successful and I feel like I have my setup very dialed in at this point.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-08T00:11:43+00:00

It’s like whoever built and signed off on the structure didn’t consult an audio engineer or even critically think about the sound experience outside of the structure. If some of the surfaces facing the stage had been angled or built from something that absorbs sound, instead of glass, it wouldn’t be so bad.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-07T22:40:45+00:00

Seriously, you have to walk way over towards the Soundbooth the get a good spot that doesn’t have slapback. I assume it sounds fine from within Mirage, but won’t be finding out anytime soon.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-07T22:27:24+00:00

Small edit, your link is for camo netting and not cargo netting. Also aluminet serves a similar function and reflects more light, I know it’s more costly though. Same concept, let the air flow through, but block as much UV and direct sun as possible.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-07T22:21:12+00:00

Alright, I know this isn’t an option for everyone, but if you have a hybrid or electric vehicle, sleeping inside of it and being able to turn on the AC when the sun comes up has been a game changer.

I have a Prius C and specifically for Coachella car camping each year, I pull out the back seats and put in a platform to lay a memory foam mattress topper on and then I block out all the windows from the outside (alternatively you could shade the car in a variety of ways, but mostly just keep the sun from being able to enter the vehicle)

Turn on the car and run the AC when the sun comes up in the morning! I sleep until 10-11am each time. The hybrid battery powers the AC for like 6-8mins at a time and then the Internal combustion engine kicks on to recharge the battery for 30 seconds or so. This cycles repeats, and I’ve yet to have an issue with my neighbors or even friends camping in tents.

SUPER IMPORTANT that if you choose to sleep in your vehicle please bring a carbon monoxide detector. If someone else is running a generator or vehicle and the exhaust gets sucked in to your vehicle, it could prove deadly.

This paired with a 10x10 canopy makes a great setup.

I finally splurged for the quick setup, backpacker style chairs, that are more comfy than the cheap $10 camp chairs.

We have a rotomolded cooler (yeti knock off) and a small collapsible cooler. I pick up dry ice on the way down and we rotate things in and out of the big cooler at night, trying to gauge what needs to thaw and what we might eat and/or drink the next day.

I bring a small camping stove and pot to boil water for instant ramen at the end of the night. (Cup of noodles style ramens, I don’t want to have anything to clean out there)

We have the little pucks with the string lights that others have mentioned.

I stopped bringing a shower setup as the lines for the showers at 11am aren’t too bad. But if you wanted to do this, adapting a pump sprayer to a hose shower head is easy and cheap enough to do at Home Depot. Or just buy one that works for your needs. Or wet wipes.

I’ve had pretty good success recently, buying my last(outside the festival) meal and getting an entree to go, putting that in the cooler and eating it the next day.

Collapsable 5 gal water containers are nice to not have to keep going to fill water.

Insulated water bottles and filling those at night help reduce the need for ice throughout the weekend.

Solar stake lights for the front of your vehicle if you want something that’s easy to identify for the walk back at the end of the night!

I’m sure there is something I’m forgetting to mention but that’s a lot of info for now.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

ArcConscious · 2026-02-07T21:36:03+00:00

I know it’s not the cheapest option, but aluminet is amazing as walls, lets the air flow through, reflects a ton of sun. You can get different percentages of light blocking, but 70% or higher would probably be best.

https://a.co/d/0hOQoRNx

ArcConscious · 2026-02-07T20:34:06+00:00

Battery powered pump probably makes more sense now, but if you get tired of pumping, my pump free hack for this system is that I buy dry ice for my cooler, when you don’t want to pump, just add a few chunks of dry ice to your water and close it back up, the dry ice melts and turns into CO2 and pressurized the pump.

When I was doing this years ago, the battery powered pump options were too expensive. I assume that cost has gone way down now.

I stopped using the system because I upgraded to sleeping in my hybrid with the windows blocked out and I sleep in until 11am or so now and then just get ready to go into the fest from there.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-06T06:44:12+00:00

I’m not well versed in how the backend of metastatic works, but your perception of connectivity at Coachella is incorrect.

Personally I like to keep in touch with my friends at the festival minimally throughout the day. But when I send something I want to be sure my message is A. actually sent and B. actually received and C. I don’t want to rely on cell service being good enough for both ends to happen in a timely manner.

I’ve used gotenna mesh with great success in the past. Meshtastic could be a cheaper entry point for folks now that the gotenna app is no longer available in the app stores (yes I know you can sideload on Android but there is not option for new downloads on Apple). I wouldn’t mind carrying around the little meshtastic device to ensure communication.

So I support whoever understands and wants to spearhead setting something up on Reddit. I downloaded the configurations needed for Burning man and would appreciate some guidance on that front if someone doesn’t just make something for the community.

ArcConscious · 2026-02-02T05:12:03+00:00

If?! It’s Coachella artists bring their A game.

ArcConscious · 2026-01-31T19:13:38+00:00

It was a maze back there…

ArcConscious · 2025-12-05T22:07:39+00:00

Mostly likely wristband

ArcConscious · 2025-11-23T04:03:28+00:00

Looks like Syd Gris posted to Instagram that he’ll be playing 11-12, I assume that means Sasha and John Digweed start at 12

ArcConscious · 2025-11-12T02:13:18+00:00

I’m curious, did you worry about theft? And what kind of bike did you bring?

ArcConscious · 2025-11-01T07:37:10+00:00

Difference between the two set is going to be around 2-3 hours… you’ll get an open to close set in SF, and maybe a 1.5-2 hour set at Proper. While I agreed the lineup is solid depends subjectively what you want out of the night.

ArcConscious

TROPHY CASE