I can still remember the exact moment when I fell in love with music.

My family and I had just finished eating brunch at a local restaurant and my older brother decided to drive home. As he sped out of the parking lot, he popped in a Led Zeppelin CD and turned up the volume as high as it could go.

John Paul Jones‘ vibrating bass line of “Whole Lotta Love” immediately began shaking the walls of the car. A few seconds later, Robert Plant was wailing his lyrics through the speakers and people from nearby cars started to stare. As self-conscious as I felt, all I can remember thinking is, “THIS is music.”

It was the first time I heard Led Zeppelin, and I haven’t heard anything as raw or magnetic since.

I was ten years old, and as corny or unbelievable as it sounds, that moment changed my life. I didn’t realize it then, but that song catapulted my ongoing obsession with music.

That brief musical epiphany is what I will be blaming when I’m sunburned, dehydrated and exhausted when this weekend comes to a conclusion. From April 16-18, I will be joining thousands of people at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the first time in my life, and I’ve never been more excited about anything.

For those unfamiliar with this festival, it’s truly an experience of a lifetime. Each April, thousands of rabid music fans travel from across the country to Indio, California, a small town near the Mojave Desert. The intimate setting allows for fans and musicians to interact with each other in a way that is unique to present-day music festivals.

As a fanatical music junkie, I’ve waited for this opportunity since I was 14 years old, when this thing called Coachella first came to my attention. Begging my parents for years, but they weren’t enthusiastic about spending $300 on a ticket or wasting three days under the hot sun of the California desert. Now that I’m older and able to pay for my own ticket, I realize the five-year wait was well worth it.

To afford the expensive ticket prices, each week I divided my paycheck in half and dedicated that money to the Coachella fund. I eventually saved enough money to enjoy a weekend at the music festival, but my parents still worried about who would accompany me.

I convinced them to allow my younger sister to go because after all, she is the only person on the planet who appreciates the same wide variety of music that I’ve grown to love. Her ticket was an early high school graduation present, and I honestly can’t think of a better person to share the experience with.

We grew up listening to local classic rock radio stations and mostly ignored popular modern music. We still had unavoidable obsessions with ’90s boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, but they were fleeting. On our way home from school, my dad would insist upon the Eagles or Jimi Hendrix instead of Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child, despite our yells of protest.

As it turns out, some of the musicians that I grew up idolizing will be performing on the stages of Indio’s grass fields.

John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Nirvana’s drummer Dave Grohl are attending under lofty expectations of their new super group, Them Croooked Vultures. Radiohead’s front man Thom Yorke and Flea, the bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, are also joining forces through the much-anticipated Atoms for Peace.

Indie superpower Vampire Weekend is also making an appearance, along with MGMT, Muse, and the Strokes’ front man Julian Casablancas.

Coachella has also invited hip-hop artists Jay-Z and the Gorillaz, a rare occurrence for a usually indie-centric festival.

For any music fan, Coachella is the quintessential experience.

For one weekend, thousands of strangers can forget everything else in the world to sing the same songs and feel the same things all at once. Few things are as powerful and unifying as music festivals, and that’s precisely why Coachella promises to be a highlight of my life.