Coachella wasn’t the only festival to kick off this weekend; Jews around the world observed the first two nights of eight day festival Passover, which centres on the story of the Jewish people leaving Egypt, where they were slaves, and making theit way through the desert, during which Moses received the Ten Commandments. There’s a lot of reading, eating, singing, drinking and more, including a series of strict dietary requirements, the most notable of which is the banning of all yeast products (including things like bread and beer) for eight days. Luckily, Coachella organisers knew the events would be overlapping, and catered to their Jewish attendees who wished to celebrate the holy event.
There’s actually a “Shabbat Tent” at Coachella, as well as Bonnaroo, langerado, High Sierra and Gathering of the Vibes festivals, for those who wanted to keep the faith while partying. This year, the tent held a “Matzahchella Seder” once an hour for those who wished to observe. The seders were led on Friday and Saturday by Rabbi Yonah Bookstein of the University of Southern California Hillel. “We’ll be doing ten-minute Seders and distributing matzah through one of the Jewish artists who we work with a lot, [rapper] Kosha Dillz,” he explained.
Passover observers (and their non-Jewish friends) were welcome to partake in the mini-Seder, which included a traditional Seder plate including charoset, lamb shank and maror, as well as Matzah (for any gentiles reading, click here for a brief rundown of what this all means), and could even charge their phones at the same time.
For those playing at home, you can even enjoy this festive Passover-themed playlist from Kosha Dillz aka 35-year-old Rami Even-Esh, who is also set to release a new album, What I Do All Day and Pickle, via his own Oy Vey! Records. Listen to one of his tracks below.
Image: Billboard