As late April rolled around, thousands of TikToks, Instagram posts and YouTube vlogs joined the internet as one of the world’s most famous music festivals took place. In 1999, Coachella made its debut, featuring $50 tickets and around 37,000 attendants. Now, Coachella has grown into a tremendous two-weekend festival, with general admission tickets starting at around $500 and bringing in over 250,000 attendants.
People spend weeks preparing outfits, makeup, camping plans and assembling the perfect schedule to optimize parties, dancing and performances. Attendees bring tents to camp out and wait in hour-long lines to simply shower. Thousands of dollars are required to attend and enjoy the event, but how did it get to this extreme point?
Held in Indio, California, the Coachella Valley area screams wealth and superiority. It provides an optimal place to hold the festival, which is known for celebrity attendance from influencers to notable politicians such as Bernie Sanders. According to NPR, “Coachella’s organizers hoped to emulate the multi-act, days-long music festivals that were so popular overseas, such as those in Reading and Glastonbury in the United Kingdom.” The festival’s first year was a defeat, costing the organizers $750,000 due to a lack of sponsors and a drop in ticket sales.
After taking a break in 2000, Coachella was back for another attempt in April of 2001. Wind of an incredible music festival picked up, featuring Weezer and Iggy Pop, and attendance took off exponentially. The festival first sold out in 2004 with an unbelievable turnout of 120,000 people.
Now, single-day passes have been traded for three-day passes, and in 2012, a second weekend of the festival was added. The vibes of a music festival have also been replaced by a social event that almost prioritizes outfits and social media presence over living in the moment and enjoying the music. Companies host influencers and provide housing, transportation and cover the cost of the festival in exchange for online content, causing the festival to appear more luxurious and accessible than reality. While there are celebrities showing off outfits worth thousands, in actuality, most of the attendees sport regular t-shirts and are there for the phenomenal music and vibes.
