Sneak Peek: Coachella 2015

Don't be surprised to hear that many brands are moving from the dry-lands this year and into more targeted and intimate settings at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. These brands are looking to capture a better-curated mix of influencers who may want stay away from the desert. If you didn't already know, Coachella, since 2012, has been extended to a two-weekend format, making it a truly desirable event for all brands to want to market at. In fact, so many brands hopped on board the marketing bandwagon for the year's biggest music festival that parties only got bigger, and—perhaps inevitably—some became less exclusive.

That is why this year, we will see a new set of unofficially affiliated parties that largely mark a move toward the more intimate and targeted. Gone this year is the massive desert pool party from Lacoste. Guess, similarly, will cede its takeover of Palm Springs' Viceroy hotel. However, some brands will still host blowouts including festival newcomer PopSugar, which will have its Cabana Club weekend-long celebration with ShopStyle. And on an even larger-scale, Brent Bolthouse's Neon Carnival, most notably, will be back for its sixth year on the scene, but with a new lineup of sponsors including presenting sponsor Paper magazine, Pacific Sun, Dope the movie, and tequila Don Julio (my favorite).

Back to that more intimate and pampered feel we were talking about earlier, M.A.C. Cosmetics and Mia Moretti will host a daytime poolside event at the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs on Friday, taking cues from their collaboration collection inspired by the upcoming summer festival season. Well-known makeup artists will do touch-ups on site to make you even more flawless. Also among the lower-profile retreats is one at the 20-room Sparrows Lodge, where guest can expect a luxe, insider vibe with healthy fare, cocktails from Absolut Elyx, gitfing suites, and spa and beauty treatments. My kind of party!

Truly showing off this year's trend of keeping it small, official festival sponsor H&M will host a so-called “sunset cocktails” party at the Parker Palm Springs. Just 75 guests are expected to attend. The number is a huge contrast to the massive fete it held at the 40-acre Merv Griffin estate its first year with a party off the polo fields with almost 700 people in attendance. Another newcomer, Rachel Zoe and The Zoe Report, will host an exclusive pool party with Dolce Vita on Saturday in Palm Springs for its favorite fashionistas.

Pandora will bring Questlove for its Cathedral City party, which will include a giant teeter-totter and snow cones. How awesome does that sound? Newcomer Refinery29 will host a party at the Saguaro that will include festival hair braiding from Garnier. Lastly, the weekend-long pool party known as the Influential House will draw about 100 targeted social media influencers and brands meant to engage them. In 2014, the party garnered one billion gross social media impressions for the hashtag #TINhouse, and had three No. 1 worldwide trends on Twitter; an unbelievable outcome.

We can't wait to see how these events will all go down this weekend! Check back for more festival fun updates and devour the details of Coachella 2015 with us!