There are many major American music festivals, but arguably none have proven more popular over the past decade-plus than Coachella, the annual mid-April rock/hip hop/electronic festival held just outside of Palm Springs. And it just seems to get bigger every year.
That's been a bit of a welcome problem for its promoter, Goldenvoice. Faced with either raising prices or limiting the number of people who could attend the hipper-than-thou event, Coachella did something never before attempted by an American music festival — offered a repeat of itself the following weekend.
Whether such a feat was an artistic success won't be determined until after this weekend's repeat performances, but undoubtedly it was a commercial win for Goldenvoice: All 150,000 tickets for both weekends sold out in record time — and before even one artist had been confirmed.
But what about the festival, which this reporter attended for the fourth consecutive year?
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.