Festival-goers at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on April 18, 2026, found a unique experience at Record Safari, the festival's on-site record store. Fans browsed new and used vinyl records, with many visiting on Record Store Day itself, enjoying the crackle of vinyl over booming speakers.
Arturo Cecena, second from right, shops for vinyl records inside Record Safari during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
a different kind of experience awaits just steps from the entrance, one that trades booming speakers for the soft crackle of vinyl., the festival’s on-site record store, fans flip through crates of new and used records, many stopping in during Record Store Day, which landed on Saturday, April 18 duringRecord Safari’s Alex Rodriguez poses for a photograph during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Festival goers shop for vinyl records inside Record Safari during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Records available inside Record Safari during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Karrina Carrasco of Modesto shops for vinyl records inside Record Safari during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
From left, Amara Lucero and Anthony Martinez of Long Beach shop for vinyl records inside Record Safari during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Record Safari’s Alex Rodriguez poses for a photograph during day two of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
For Alex Rodriguez, the man behind Record Safari, the moment is the culmination of more than a decade spent building something that started almost by accident.,” Rodriguez said. “One year, the people doing the record store at Coachella couldn’t do it, so they kind of scrambled and asked me. They threw me into it with only a couple of months’ notice, but I made it work. They liked what I did, and now I’m the record guy at Coachella.”
Since stepping in around 2013, Rodriguez has watched the space steadily grow. What once was a smaller setup with fewer records has expanded into a fully built-out shop, stocked with thousands of vinyl selections and designed to feel like a pause from the festival’s intensity. “It’s definitely expanded,” he said. “The tent used to be smaller, we carried fewer records. Now we keep the walls with a signature pink color. With all the craziness going on out there, waiting in lines and loud music, you come in here, it’s air-conditioned and it kind of calms you. It’s like a decompression zone.”
That balance is part of what continues to draw fans in, especially during Record Store Day, a global celebration of independent record shops and vinyl culture. This year, Record Safari carried a range of exclusive releases, including a limited run from Elton John, with two signed copies given out to lucky buyers just earlier on that day. “Some of them were pretty limited,” Rodriguez said. “Elton gave us two signed copies to give out, and people were stoked.”
But beyond exclusives, what sets Record Safari apart is the journey behind the records themselves. About half of the shop’s inventory is made up of used vinyl Rodriguez personally sources while traveling the world. “For the used records, I travel all over Europe and Japan trying to find things you don’t see in America,” he said. “When I was in Japan a few months ago, they had different pressings with different artwork, or what’s called an Obi strip; people really like that because it’s something unique.”
That global approach often means festival goers are flipping through records they might never come across back home, a detail that resonates with a crowd that itself has traveled from across the world to be in Indio. “I think people come here from all over, so there might be records they’re seeing that they can’t get where they’re from,” Rodriguez said. “Or maybe they live somewhere where there’s no record store, so it’s fun for them to actually shop instead of ordering online.”
Even in a digital era, the appeal of vinyl continues to show up in unpredictable ways. Rodriguez has seen fans treat records not just as music, but as mementos tied to the festival experience itself.“She didn’t even want us to hold it for her,” Rodriguez said with a laugh. “We told her it might warp in the heat, and she said she didn’t care. She just wanted the cover so she could frame it. For her, it wasn’t even about the record, it was a piece of artwork.”
At a festival defined by quick moments, Record Safari offers something a little more lasting. A physical piece of music, memory and place that fans can carry home long after the final set ends.
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