Coachella

Coachella, officially known as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, is one of the largest music festivals in the US and the world, welcoming hundreds of thousands of attendees each day over two weekends every year. It’s also one of the most influential festivals in the history of pop music, having repeatedly featured performances that have realigned music industry norms.

Coachella is one of the largest music festivals in the US, though it almost didn't make it past its tumultuous first year. This overview explores how that show inspired the first Coachella in 1999, its early setbacks, and how it grew into a cultural mainstay.

Coachella might be a cutting-edge cultural event, but it doesn’t come for free. Beyond the high ticket prices, which typically start around $500, there are other costs, like lodging, food, and libations. This article spotlights four attendees who break down their expenses for the week and why, despite the hefty price tag, they were so interested in heading to the desert.

Coachella requires a massive infrastructure that powers its soundboards, lighting rigs, dressing rooms, bathrooms, restaurants, and more., creating a significant carbon footprint.

In 1982, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak was on a hiatus from Apple after a near-fatal plane crash. In his spare time, he decided to throw a festival that would bring together cutting-edge music and technology—a Woodstock for the 1980s. The result was the US Festival, an early ancestor of Coachella that brought world-class acts like Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, the Grateful Dead, and the Ramones to a rustic venue outside Los Angeles.

This documentary produced by Coachella tells the story of Goldenvoice, a scrappy upstart booking punk, hardcore, and gangster rap shows in southern California and how it created one of the biggest festivals in the world. Beyond the narrative, though, this is worth watching for incredible performances from the White Stripes, Kendrick Lamar, Amy Winehouse, and more.

Pearl Jam hasn’t yet played Coachella, but they did play a major role in inspiring the annual music festival. The story goes back to 1993, when Pearl Jam was protesting all Ticketmaster-owned venues, which made playing a Los Angeles area date next to impossible. That led concert promoter Goldenvoice to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, where the first Coachella took place six years later.

In 1996, Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollet helped organize the Organic Festival, an all-night electronic music festival held at a ski resort east of Los Angeles. Tollet said he was inspired by the way Organic’s lineup brought the United Kingdom's burgeoning rave culture to a distinctly picturesque and American venue and environment.

The unveiling of the Coachella poster has become an annual cultural tradition (and an amusing internet meme). Sifting through this official collection of every poster from the festival's lifespan showcases the undercard acts who eventually became headliners, as well as the big names who fell into obscurity. But it's not only a fascinating illustration of the evolution of pop culture; there are also subtle changes in Coachella's design, offering a case study in slowly refining a brand's identity.

Coachella is now the premier live music festival in the US, but it almost didn’t survive its financially catastrophic first year, which featured extreme heat and only attracted 50,000 attendees. The festival did not return until 2001, thanks to entertainment company AEG’s purchase of Goldenvoice, providing the capital needed to continue.