Coachella Has Changed, But Is It For The Better?

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Coachella was not always the social media infused, influencer filled, take out a second mortgage to pay for one ticket music festival that is is today.

Founded back in 1999 by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen, the first Coachella music festival ran from October 9th to October 10th in Indo, California. The first festival featured the headliners of Beck, Tool, and Rage Against The Machine. The goal of the original Coachella was to be a place or a festival for alternative music, music that was artist driven, and a place away from mainstream festivals.

Despite what we would consider a once in a lifetime opportunity to see such big name acts, the first Coachella was originally a failure, selling only around 25,000 tickets despite the big names acts and actually lost around $1 million, with the primary cause for this monumental loss being blamed primarily on the extreme heat.

Since that first weekend in 1999, and returning in 2001, the festival has returned as a mainstay on the music festival scene. Drawing in big artists and even bigger crowds every year, but when you look at it now it feels like a completely different festival compared to the original vision.

Now when you look at Coachella, you see see all the the influencer posts with their outfits of the day, and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get in and to find an area to camp out for the weekend.

It has turned from a music festival to be a change of pace from the mainstream music and mainstream festivals to being overtaken by the mainstream media and influencers. It has turned from a who’s that playing on stage into a who’s who of media influencers,.

It feels as if the entirety of the festival has turned more into a social media stunt rather than a music festival from the outside looking in, distracting from the original purpose of the festival.

That being said, the meaning of the festival can change over time, and it seemingly has in today’s day and age. It has meant that the festival is profitable and popular in the main stream media, and seen as the crown jewel of festivals to play at.

Maybe it’s time that allowed the festival to change and become the monster that it is now, both in terms of the artists that play it, and the pop culture event that it has become over the couple of years.