Coachella 2017

[e2p2]

On 7/6/2017 at 8:19 PM, bhomburg said:

Nice to review this now.

On a general note, I just love Coachella and think it is the best festival out there. First, it's in April, long before festival season on this side of the Atlantic starts. Makes the wait for summer a lot shorter, and one knows who's worth seeing on the European circuit.

Second, the location in the desert is just about perfect. The venue is grassy (well, rather what's left of it by the time weekend II ends). Never any weather lottery, unlike Glastonbury & Co. It never rains. Nights are balmy, and there's shady and even air-conditioned tent stages for those hot summer days when the sun beats down mercilessly.

Third, the organizers got their act together in terms of production quality. The sound (usually, this year had a number of glitches weekend one) is as perfect as it can get. The venue is (or rather, was, until this year - this year they enlarged the venue a little while selling significantly more tickets, resulting in unpleasant overcrowding) small enough to make walking between stages feasible. 

Of course, there's downsides. It's expensive, for one. Very expensive. Ticket prices (430 dollars for 2018, up from half that in 2010 when I first went) are one thing, and the local councils and business communities now have fully grasped the revenue potential these events bring. Prices for accommodations - especially house rentals and hotel rooms - have gone through the roof, and tricks that used to work (like booking before dates where announced for next year, or trying to use points for the chains) don#t any more. OK, most of that can be avoided if you camp onsite, which I don't do. Camping is financially accessible (USD 113 for a weekend pass, up from $100 last year - thanks new tax!).

Personally, I like the US way of separating the drinking areas from the stages (mostly a side effect of  US alcohol laws), it's just more civilized. Far less drunk people in front of stages. But the separate bar area wristband that they even have taken to daily changes is a nuisance, as are the extra lines lines to get those things, and then into the bar area and out again. At least there now is decent beer ever since they introduced a craft beer barn in  2014.

 

 

 

Thanx for the review! The point of the festival being in April indeed makes it as some kind of bridge to the summer festival but as you said, it is very expensive, especially if you don't camp. I think the thing that bother me the most (the drinking area, US taste in music,  and money are the others) is the short time each non headline act gets to play. 40-50 minutes aren't enough when an act have a new album to promote. A sub gets an hour which is below normal too.