When passes for the 2023 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival went on sale last year, the annual gathering in the desert did not sell out immediately for the first time since Goldenvoice introduced two weekends more than a decade ago.
This year, the pattern continues.
Right now, less than two months before Coachella’s opening day, the 2024 festival has yet to sell out. Weekend 1 General Admission passes are no longer available, but VIP passes are. Both GA and VIP passes are available for Weekend 2. The ticket reseller StubHub recently was selling GA passes for both weekends for about $100 less than original price. A pair of VIP passes were $788.
An event that was once highly sought-after has lost some of its esteem.
An examination of the Coachella community on Reddit offers hints why would-be festivalgoers are sitting out this year’s event, slated for April 12-14 and 19-21.
The lineup could be one reason for sluggish sales. Jason Kane, an entertainment consultant at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and former Clear Channel Radio vice president and director of operations, told The Desert Sun that the current landscape of live entertainment has created an abundance of festival and concert choices for consumers.
According to travel media outlet Explore, there were over 800 music festivals in the U.S. as of 2023. Festivals such as Desert Daze at Lake Perris, Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, offer the same artists on the lineup during the summer and fall months. Coachella performers such as Brittany Howard, Taking Back Sunday and Khruangbin are also scheduled to appear at Bonnaroo in June.
Consumers are also pushing back against soaring ticket prices.
“Not only must (consumers) select which events to attend, but they are also confronted with the financial aspect, determining how much they are willing to invest in these experiences,” Kane said. “The need for these decisions hints at a potential slowdown or even a hiatus in the continuous escalation of ticket costs.”
During Coachella’s formative years in the early 2000s, the festival featured reunions by bands such as Bauhaus, Pixies, Pavement and The Stooges. But the roster has shifted as Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles promoter behind the festival, has cut back on rock and older hip-hop artists while also limiting how many older acts appear in premium slots on the lineup.
This contemporary push is the result of an evolving music industry, including a shift in the way audiences discover music in the digital age. Independent music artists on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have gone viral with single tracks or a collection of self-produced material without any labels behind them.
Since 2022, the festival has focused on international artists dominating pop culture, evident in its choice of headliners such as K-pop band BLACKPINK, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and popstar Harry Styles.
Kane said current dynamics in the music industry of festivals spotlight emerging artists, which benefits new talent, but muddles established major artists. The pandemic also stunted industry growth and artist development.
“This pattern is not exclusive to the music industry; it mirrors the challenges faced by the film and television sectors, where production and development interruptions caused a ripple effect,” Kane said. “As we gradually emerge from this slump, it is anticipated that both the entertainment and music industries will witness a revival, but with a new and unique landscape.”
Not only has the artist selection shifted, so has the volume: fewer artists are performing at the festival compared to previous years. In past rosters, there have been 200 or more, and this year’s lineup features 146 acts.
Partnerships buoy festivals amid ticket slumps
With outside sources of revenue and partnerships looking to benefit, Coachella is likely safe to endure a brief slump in attendance as the festival industry enters a period of adjustment. The influx in corporate sponsorships and marketing offers revenue streams beyond ticket sales.
As such, festival organizers have switched in recent years from courting devoted music fans to catering to social media influencers and their audiences. A quick walk through the festival grounds — or even a brief look at a festival map — reveals a plethora of cosmetic company booths and clothing brand pop-ups. Goldenvoice also enjoys a partnership with YouTube to livestream performances each year.
According to a 2022 report by SponsorUnited, the top five beverage sponsorships for festivals were Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Red Bull, Tito’s and Monster. Snapchat was listed as the top social media sponsor with 16 Live Nation festival partnerships that include Lollapalooza in Chicago and the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York. The platform was highlighted for its augmented reality fan experiences during the events.
In 2023, Bad Bunny’s headlining set at Coachella was boosted by his partnership with Adidas in the form of a large cube structure featuring 50,000 flowers. The interactive ad gave fans an opportunity to purchase a pair of his branded shoes ahead of the release date.
But these partnerships and social influencers boosting the popularity of Coachella and other festivals has impacted the lineups and turned many music fans off. In a 2022 thread on Reddit titled “Coachella is stupid,” user LuvIsLov described the festival as “a social media ego fest with (only) mainstream artists.”
Some fans lament pivot from music to influence
Coachella emerged during the early 2000s as the first European-style music festival in the U.S. Early lineups featured reunions by bands such as Bauhaus, Pixies, Pavement and The Stooges. Kanye West, The White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem and more performed just as they were gaining widespread attention. But the festival really rose to prominence in 2006 after featuring Madonna and a legendary performance by electronic music icons Daft Punk.
“I love the idea of seeing a relatively eclectic group of artists playing at the same festival and being exposed to new bands/artists, but it definitely sounds like Bonnaroo and Coachella are more well known for their ‘atmosphere’ than anything else these days,” Reddit user pnkflyd99 said.
Now, festivalgoers increasingly are spending their time at the Empire Polo Club making videos and taking selfies in front of the stages and art installations. These photos and videos have become fodder for comedians and internet memes.
In 2016, comedian David Spade appeared in a video made by the comedy site Funny Or Die where he interviews a woman attending the festival who tells him the worst thing that ever happened to her was losing a pair of sunglasses, is surprised to hear there’s bands at the festival, and would vote for “The Beebs” (Justin Bieber) in the 2016 presidential election.
But it’s not just music fans — or influencers — who are affected by the health of the music festival industry. It’s also the communities where these events are staged.
A huge amount of money changes hands before and during the festivals. Exactly how much money, and how much of it stays and goes into the pockets of locals, is less clear.
Various figures citing amounts northward of $1 billion dollars in revenue or economic impact from the festivals have appeared in outlets from NBC to Rolling Stone and even this newspaper. While these figures are attributed to a variety of sources, upon closer inspection, nearly all appear to trace their ultimate origin to the findings of a 2016 study by Palm Desert-based consulting firm Development Management Group.
Changes to the festival site and highlights of the lineup
When Coachella returns in April, changes are guaranteed. In February, Goldenvoice posted a video on its social media pages highlighting a new Sahara Tent at a new location and with a whole new look.
One attempted change has already been soundly rejected. A new parking policy announced for this year was rescinded in February amid outcry. Day parking at the festival grounds would have only be available to cars with four or more festivalgoers.
As criticism mounted over the new policy and questions were raised as to why it was implemented, the city of Indio told The Desert Sun in February it had no role in creating the rule, even though the city has seen some major festival-related traffic problems in past years.
It’s unclear whether fewer artists on the lineup will mean longer sets — alternatively, it could mean the festival will start later in the afternoon — but we won’t know until set times are released a day or so before the festival begins.
Highlights and reunions in this year’s lineup
One way to examine this year’s festival lineup: less is more.
Three heavy-hitters of the French electronic dance music scene who put on noteworthy sets in previous years are slated to perform. Justice, a French house duo known for merging rock and heavy metal into its funk dance compositions, was a highlight of the festival in 2012 and 2017. DJ and producer Gesaffelstein donned his black full body costume and mask that gives him a statue-like appearance and featured several dark but memorable electronic compositions during his 2019 performance. That same year, DJ Snake’s set on the Outdoor Stage featured special guests Cardi B, Selena Gomez and Ozuna.
The 2024 festival also will feature Anaheim pop-punk and ska band No Doubt’s first performance in over a decade. The band, with vocalist Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young, reemerged in 2013 following a lengthy hiatus to release the album “Push and Shove.” No Doubt went on hiatus again by the year’s end. Stefani told Rolling Stone in 2015 the band had “grown apart as far as what kind of music we want to make” and was uncertain about the future.
Long Beach ska punk band Sublime members Eric Wilson (bass) and Bud Gaugh (drums) are also reuniting and will perform with the band’s late vocalist Bradley Nowell’s son, Jakob. In 2009, Sublime reunited with vocalist Rome Ramirez. The band changed its name to Sublime With Rome in 2009 following threats of a lawsuit from Bradley Nowell’s estate, and Gaugh left in 2012. Wilson and Gaugh reunited to perform with Jakob Nowell at a December benefit concert for Bad Brains vocalist H.R. at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.
Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Jon Batiste, the subject of the 2023 Netflix documentary “American Symphony,” will also appear. Batiste’s performance is part of his first North American headlining tour in support of his latest album, “World Music Radio.” The expansive record was nominated for six Grammy Awards, including album, song, and record of the year.
This report includes previous reporting by Desert Sun staff.
Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.