Coachella is four months away and just like it has in previous years, the music festival quickly sold out.
This year, the festival sold out in less than a few hours. As expected, those who are going are hyped, although there is an equal amount of gripe from those who didn’t get a ticket.
The festival has been around since 1999, and a lot has changed for Coachella over the years. Coachella started as a two-day festival and stayed that way until 2006. By 2007, the festival had expanded into a three-day extravaganza.
In 2010, Coachella scrapped the single-day tickets to give attendees an all encompassing experience. In 2012, Coachella announced that the festival would be held over two weekends, instead of one, to accommodate popular demand.
Headliners this year include Coachella veterans, such as Muse and Arcade Fire, which are sure to get the desert moving. Besides everyone’s radio favorites, underground musicians will surely be discovered by open-minded festival goers, including bands like, Gabba Gabba Heys and The Dismemberment Plan.
At first glance, it might seem redundant, maybe even predictable to have Muse and Arcade Fire headline as they have played Coachella multiple times. However, it’s a step up from last year’s headliners The Stone Roses and Phoenix, bands which many critics commented didn’t have enough star power to be considered headliners.
Reunions are always some of the most anticipated announcements on the lineup. This year is no exception with reunions from acclaimed hip hop duo OutKast, rock band The Replacements, and indie legend Neutral Milk Hotel.
Attendees are undoubtedly looking forward to another surprise guest, like 2012’s unforgettable Tupac hologram.
That being said, there are drawbacks to attending the prestigious fest.
Geographically it’s not an odyssey, but it is quite a drive that can take up to three hours which can add to the fortune you already dropped on the full weekend pass.
How much are you willing to pay for a slice of pizza and water? The weekend wristband isn’t just going to cost you a hefty $375. You should also take into account whether or not you will camp at the festival or stay at a hotel. Car parking or tent camping costs $80, and a shuttle bus pass is an additional $60. With those mystery processing and convenience fees, before you know it you’re charging over $600 to your credit card.
Last year, Goldenvoice reported that around 90,000 people bought three-day passes to the festival, not including staff, artists and other crew members.
Its popularity has made it nearly impossible to buy tickets because not everyone who buys a ticket will attend, but rather is looking to make some easy cash once the procrastinators start to scramble.
Many people buy tickets just to sell them for jacked up prices as desperate fans want to buy tickets as the weekend approaches.
Therefore, your best bet is to try to get your tickets from a scalper a week before the event. As risky as it sounds, that time they really just want to get their money back after failing to sell them for an inflated price.
If you really want to attend a music festival but don’t have the funds, you might be better off waiting for the closer, more affordable FYF Fest, an end-of-summer music festival in Los Angeles.
Last year’s tickets for FYF were $99 for a two day pass and included 12 artists currently on Coachella’s 2014 roster, including Shlohmo, Waxahatchee, Title Fight, STRFKR, Washed Out and MGMT.
FYF Fest 2013 also included headliners like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, Death Grips and My Bloody Valentine, all of whom have played at Coachella before.
FYF is growing bigger every year, just like Coachella has.
Daniel Speer, Cal State Long Beach’s Underground Music Society Vice-President said he thinks that FYF is a great alternative to Coachella, but each has its own perks.
“There is more rap at Coachella and well, you can’t forget Outkast,” Speer said. “If you were to add up tickets for Nas, Outkast and all the other big hip-hop artist it would probably be cheaper to go to Coachella.”
There are also those who have complained that Coachella has gotten too “mainstream,” and others say its run by a bunch of rich hipsters.
Monica Nguyen, a junior communications major, said she has attended music festivals like FYF in the past, but has never attended Coachella because it is too expensive. While she said she sees the appeal, she also thinks Coachella has become trendy and over-hyped.
“People probably want to dress up and show off that they are going to Coachella,” Nguyen said. “I don’t think people are going for the music, they are going simply because it’s Coachella.”
Regardless of the reasons people attend, there are more than 100 bands playing at the internationally famous music festival, and the majority of fashionable, intoxicated attendees will only know a fraction of them, and that’s part of the magic of Coachella.