The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (AKA Coachella, Coachellafest or Coachella Festival) has expanded for 2012, and will now be held for the first time over two consecutive weeks in mid-April, and the Coachella 2012 lineup is now out.
With the expanded festival, the event will be held in Indio, Calif. on April 13-15 and April 20-22. Indeed, that means one of the dates will include the day normally defined to be Tax Day (which for 2012 is being delayed to Tuesday, April 17 due to April 15 being a Sunday, and a holiday observed by the District of Columbia).
The 2012 Coachella lineup is, of course, subject to change. The full list is here. Among the artists which are currently scheduled to appear are Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (listed together). The pair will close the festival on the two separate Sunday evenings. The Black Keys will anchor a Friday which also features singer-songwriter Cat Power, psychedelic electronic act M83 and reggae icon Jimmy Cliff. Radiohead will close the festival’s two Saturday evenings.
Coachella is run by AEG-owned concert promoter Goldenvoice. Each of the aforementioned two weekends is a separate ticket, priced at $285. Paul Tollett, who heads Goldenvoice and has organized the festival since its inception in 1999, said last year that the expansion was in reaction to the increased demand for tickets.
"The thought of this selling out super quick, and the only people who get to go are the people who bought the first minute or bought tickets for more than they sold for, that didn’t seem great to us. We didn’t want to go with more people and ruin the experience. We can’t add a midnight show, and we didn’t want to add another city or raise the ticket price. So we decided to add another weekend."
The first Coachella festival was in 1999, but there was no 2000 festival. Since 2001, the festival has generally been held on the third or fourth weekend of April.
2011 was the Coachella festival's second-consecutive sell-out year. It hosted about 90,000 people per day at the event. The event is held at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
