Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2015

A Basic Guide To The Coachella Festival

April 10 - April 12, 2015
April 17 - April 19, 2015

Empire Polo Club in Indio, California

Known far and wide as the Coachella Fest or simply as Coachella, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day cultural arts extravaganza that's put on in the Colorado Desert every year. Held at the Empire Polo Club at Indio, the festival is located in the Inland Empire and is spread across two weekends. A fairly young festival, Coachella was first put together in 1999 by founder Paul Tollet. Today the festival is managed by AEG Live through its subsidiary, Goldenvoice.

Coachella is a place to hear every imaginable kind of music. Genres typically include electronica, rock, hip hop, and indie. The musical attractions are complemented by extensive sculpture and installation art displays. Coachella is a multi-stage festival, featuring continuous performances at different venues. Besides the main Coachella Stage, shows are put on at the Outdoor Theatre and a series of semi-permanent tents (Gobi, Sahara, and Mojave). Coachella featured a small venue called the Oasis Dome in 2006 and 2011. In 2013 festival organizers introduced the Yuma Stage to increase overall capacity.

The roots of Coachella go back to a Pearl Jam concert that was held at the Polo Club in 1993. The band was boycotting Ticketmaster's monopolistic control of concert venues at the time, and the success of this show demonstrated that the Polo Club made a fine venue for large musical productions. The first Coachella festival was a two-day event that occurred in October of 1999. While the organizers were unable to mount a show in 2000, Coachella has stuck to a regular annual schedule ever since. (The 2001 show held in April was a one-day affair, the smallest in the festival's history.) 2002 saw the return of two-day schedules. The third day was added to the Coachella schedule in 2007; the latest expansion came in 2012 when a second weekend was introduced to the mix. Camping by attendees on the Club grounds has been allowed since the 2003 festival, just one of many steps taken to enhance the appeal and convenience of the festival for its visitors.

Coachella 2015 Lineup:

AC/DC

Ab-Soul

Action Bronson

Alabama Shakes

Alesso

Alt-J

Alvin Risk

Andrew McMahon

Angel Olsen

Angus and Julia Stone

Annie Mac

Antemasque

Axwell x Ingrosso

Azealia Banks

Bad Religion

Bad Suns

Belle & Sebastian

Brand New

Built to Spill

Caribou

Carl Craig

Cashmere Cat

Cedric Gervais

Charles Bradley

Chet Faker

Circa Survive

Claude Von Stroke

Clean Bandit

Cloud Nothings

DJ Snake

David Guetta

Deorro

Desaparecidos

Dirty South

Drake

Drive Like Jehu

Duke Dumont

Eagulls

Erol Alkan

FKA twigs

Fitz and the Tantrums

Florence and the Machine

Flosstradamus

Flying Lotus

George Ezra

Gesaffelstein

Glass Animals

Gorgon City

Gramatik

Haerts

Hot Natured

Hozier

Interpol

J.E.S.&S (Jack Master, Eats Everything, Skream, Seth Troxler)

Jack White

Jamie xx

Jason Bentley

Jenny Lewis

John Talabot

Jon Hopkins

Joyce Manor

Jungle

Kasabian

Kaskade

Kaytranada

Kele

Keys N Krates

Kiesza

Kimbra

Lights

Lil B

Loco Dice

Lykke Li

Mac DeMarco

Madeon

Marco Carola

Marina and the Diamonds

Martin Solveig

MØ

Nero

New World Punx

Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich + Fussible

OFF!

Odesza

Panda Bear

Parquet Courts

Pete Tong

Philip Selway

Phox

Porter Robinson

R3hab

RAC

Radkey

Raekwon and Ghostface Killah

Ratatat

Reverend Horton Heat

Ride

Royal Blood

Ruen Brothers

Run the Jewels

Ryan Adams

Ryan Hemsworth

SBTRKT

Sloan

Slyvan Esso

Squarepusher

St. Lucia

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

St. Vincent

Steely Dan

Stromae

Sturgill Simpson

Swans

Tale of Us

Tame Impala

The Cribs

The Gaslamp Killer Experience

The Night Terrors of 1927

The Orwells

The War on Drugs

The Weeknd

Todd Terje and the Olsens

Toro y Moi

Touche Amore

Tourist

Tycho

Tyler the Creator

Until the Ribbon Breaks

Vance Joy

Vic Mensa

Yelle

Coachella is often headlined by extremely popular, well-established bands and musical artists. It's also a popular venue for reunions and showcasing rising talents. Previous Coachella festivals have included performances by: Prince, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, the Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, The Killers, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Kanye West, Gorillaz, Eminem, Daft Punk, Madonna, the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, and the Foo Fighters. As it stands today, Coachella may well be the biggest, most important, most valuable music festival in the US. Attendance figures for 2014 broke the half million mark, and that year's festival generated nearly 80 million dollars in revenue.

The first Cochella festival was scheduled for October ninth and tenth in 1999, just three months after the relatively disastrous festival of Woodstock '99. Camping on the grounds of the Polo Club was explicitly banned in light of the riots and property damage that erupted at the Woodstock show, and that ban would remain in place until it was lifted in 2002. Coachella's major inspiration was drawn from the more variable, flexible festivals common in Europe at the time, featuring many choices of musical performers and limited crowd sizes. Coachella has a well-earned reputation for picking musicians and bands based on critical praise and skill instead of record sales or radio playtime; this has led some fans to praise Coachella as "the anti-Woodstock."

Ticket sales for this first festival totaled 37,000, with slightly more visitors coming for the second day than the first. The major attractions in 1999 were performances by Rage Against The Machine, the Chemical Brothers, Morrissey, Beck, and Tool. Coachella also offered sets played by DJ Mike Hawk, Underworld, and Jurassic 5. From the very beginning, the organizers of the festival were hoping to add a third day to the schedule; in 1999 there were tentative plans to offer a third day of shows centered around a set played by Massive Attack. Although festival-goers suffered through three-digit temperatures in 1999, the overall quality of festival was peaceful and enjoyable, with picking the best shows from the eight acts playing over the course of the festival being the primary concern for most visitors. This first festival was a net loss for Goldenvoice, which led to its subsequent acquisition by AEG.

Most of the artwork that is displayed at Coachella is interactive, encouraging attendees to explore them. Much of the artwork shown comes from Burnisel and architecture schools around the world. Popular art installations tend to make repeat showings at multiple festivals, like Hotshot the Robot, Cyclecide, and The Do Lab. Emek, a popular poster artist, has been producing exclusive limited-edition posters for Coachella since 2007.