This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (March 2012)

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

The sun sets over the main stage at Coachella 2011.
Location(s)	Indio, California, United States
Years active	1999 2001–present
Date(s)	Third Weekend or Last Week of April
Website	www.coachella.com

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly known as Coachella, Coachellafest or Coachella Festival) is an annual three-day music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice (a subsidiary of AEG Live) and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley. The event features many genres of music, including rock, indie, hip hop and electronic music as well as large sculptural art. The event has several stages/tents set-up throughout the grounds, each playing live music continuously. The main stages are: Coachella Stage, Outdoor Theatre, Gobi Tent, Mojave Tent, and the Sahara Tent (2006 and 2011 also saw the addition of a smaller Oasis Dome).

On May 31, 2011, Goldenvoice announced that the festival will be held over two separate weekends, starting in 2012. The festival is renowned for its cutting edge lineup, showcasing many of the top and up-and-coming acts in music as well as legendary artists and reunions. Notable performers include Throbbing Gristle, Paul McCartney, Prince, Radiohead, Dr. Dre, Oasis, Daft Punk, Roger Waters, Madonna, The Cure, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, The Black Keys, Rage Against The Machine, At the Drive-In, Beck, Gorillaz, Bjork, Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes, The Chemical Brothers, Pavement, MGMT, The White Stripes, Jay-Z, Tool, The Prodigy, and the Beastie Boys. The Coachella Music Festival has a desert setting (the city of Indio is a part of the California Desert), with daytime temperatures frequently rising to over 110 °F (43 °C).

History[link]

On November 5, 1993 the rock band Pearl Jam performed before almost 25,000 fans on the lawns of Indio's previously rock-festival free Empire Polo Club.^[1] Although band management had chosen this untested and under-developed site as part of a boycott of Ticketmaster and the Southern California auditoriums it controlled, the event established the new venue's suitability for large-scale rock events. Such suitability was not a given: the grounds, essentially one vast irrigated desert lawn, sit in one of America's hottest and driest spots, and the region's lightly populated towns, while having a history as resorts, are several hours' drive from regional population centers (San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix).

Six years later, on October 9 and 10, 1999 (a mere three months after the Woodstock 99 festival) the first actual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (usually abbreviated simply as "Coachella Fest") was held. Due to Woodstock 99's fires and riots, Coachella promoters were not allowed to offer on site camping, a ban that continued until the 2002 festival.

About 25,000 people attended the two-day inaugural event, supporting headlining acts Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Tool, Morrissey, and Rage Against the Machine. Other acts included Jurassic 5, DJ Mike Hawk, and Underworld. Originally, promoters had hoped to make the event three days (Friday-Sunday) and even considered the UK band Massive Attack to be the third day headliner - but those plans never came to fruition. The event went smoothly, with the biggest complaint being the blistering heat. It is reported^{[by whom?]}, however, that the event failed to generate any profit, which nearly put an end to the festival.

No festival took place in 2000, likely due to the financial troubles of the inaugural festival. In 2001, however, festival organizers decided to give it another try. They decided to move the event to April (to avoid the intense heat of the late summer), and it was only scheduled for one day, most likely due to a tighter budget. However, the 2001 organizers once again ran into some trouble organizing the festival. Just months before the event was to occur, promoters still did not have a big headliner, and the festival was once again at risk of turning a net loss. In a surprise move, promoters turned to friend Perry Farrell, and were able to bring a reunited Jane's Addiction to the main stage as the event's headlining act.

Madonna performing at Coachella, 2006

In 2002, the event once again returned to the two-day format, and saw a reunited Siouxsie and the Banshees, as well as headlining acts Björk and Oasis. The strong supporting acts helped prove to the community of Indio, California that the event was capable of bringing in money and ending without conflict.

Following the 2002 festival, Coachella began to generate large-scale interest, and the 2003 festival featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys (as well as a reunited Iggy Pop and The Stooges) drew the largest crowd yet. (This record, however, was broken by Rage Against the Machine's 2007 reunion performance which drew nearly 100,000 attendees.) Around this time, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival began to develop worldwide interest.

The 2004 event, featuring a reunion of the Pixies, as well as Radiohead, Kraftwerk, The Cure and a number of other major bands, was the event's first sellout, with 50,000 tickets sold for each Saturday and Sunday. Since then, the festival has continued to generate large draws due to strong lineups from top to bottom, including such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Tool, Daft Punk, and Massive Attack.

The 2007 show was extended to three days and included headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers, a reunited Rage Against the Machine, and Björk, with all three headlining for their second time. Other notable performers included Arcade Fire, which had made a memorable 2005 Coachella appearance, LCD Soundsystem, Manu Chao, a rare American performance by former Pulp-frontman Jarvis Cocker, and Scarlett Johansson singing with a reunited the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The 2008 event did not sell out, for the first time since 2003, while featuring headliners Prince, Roger Waters, and Jack Johnson, along with notable rare appearances from Portishead, a reunited The Verve, M.I.A., Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, a reunited Love and Rockets, and a reunited Swervedriver.

The 2009 event was hosted a week earlier than normal. The new dates were April 17, 18 and 19 with the third annual edition of the country-music Stagecoach Festival, to start the week after. The event featured notable performances such as Paul McCartney, The Cure, The Killers, My Bloody Valentine, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, M.I.A., who made a memorable appearance in 2005 with the first encore the festival had seen in a tent, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and rare appearances from artists Leonard Cohen and Throbbing Gristle.

From April 16–18, 2010 the festival drew a reported 75,000 spectators or more each day. Over the course of three days, the festival attracted an estimated average aggregate of 225,000 attendees, not 225,000 individuals as only 60,000+ 3 day pass tickets were sold. Headliners included Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz, along with LCD Soundsystem, a reunited Faith No More, a reunited Pavement, Thom Yorke of Radiohead and his live band Atoms for Peace, Tiesto, and supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. Other notable acts were Fever Ray, Porcupine Tree, deadmau5, La Roux, MGMT, Florence and the Machine, Spoon, Bassnectar, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, CéU, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Specials, a reunited Public Image Ltd., a reunited Orbital, a rare Plastikman live set from Richie Hawtin, Sly Stone and David Guetta.

The headlining act in 2011 was Kanye West and included performances by Mumford & Sons, a reunited Big Audio Dynamite, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon and the Black Keys among the 190 acts.^[2]

Each year, the festival also features interesting installation art and sculptures. Most of the pieces are interactive, and provide entertainment and eye candy for attendees walking throughout the Polo grounds. Some of the works were initially created for the Burning Man festival. In contrast to the largely non-repeating roster of musical artists represented at the festival, a few of the visual artists, such as Hotshot the Robot, Robochrist Industries, the Tesla Coil (Cauac), Cyclecide, and The Do LaB, along side avant-garde performance troupe Lucent Dossier Experience, have appeared during several consecutive years at Coachella. Another installation to the art of Coachella includes the limited edition posters produced by poster artist Emek. Emek started designing posters for the festival in 2007 and has continued to do so each year since.

On May 31, 2011, Goldenvoice announced that the festival will be held over two weekends starting in 2012.^[3]

Coachella 2012 tickets went on sale at on January 13, 2012 at 10am and were sold out by 1pm PST. During Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's performance in the 2012 show, a projection of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur came up from under the stage and began performing "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted".^[4] Although often referred to by the media as a 'hologram', the projection was in fact created using the Musion Eyeliner system, which employs a version of Pepper's ghost.^[5] Following the performance, the projection disappeared. Dr. Dre had asked the permission of Shakur's mother Afeni, who said the next day that she was thrilled with the performance.^[6]. A projection of another deceased rapper, Nate Dogg, was planned but Dr. Dre decided against it. The 2012 edition also featured Pulp, Refused, At the Drive-In, Radiohead, The Black Keys, The Hives, Jeff Mangum, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arctic Monkeys, Miike Snow, Afrojack, Gotye, Justice, Flying Lotus, St. Vincent, M83, Bon Iver, Kaiser Chiefs, The Shins, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Squeeze, Madness, awolnation, Fitz and the Tantrums, Santigold, Band of Skulls, A$AP Rocky, Childish Gambino, and The Weeknd,^[7] as well as unscheduled guest appearances by Eminem, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Warren G, and Kurupt.

Camping[link]

In 2003 Coachella started to include tent camping as an option for staying at the festival. The campground site is on an adjacent polo field next to the venue grounds. The campground has its own separate festival entrance on the southside of the venue. Goldenvoice/AEG Live contracted out Kevin Lyman, owner/promoter of Warped Tour, Taste of Chaos, and Mayhem festivals, to coordinate and run the Campgrounds.^[8] Lyman's campground employees are usually his friends or employees from the Production Office of his tours.Lyman also has a series of interns come out from Citrus College, they are paid a minimal day rate and given free camping for helping work the grounds. The first year saw camping attendance around 10,000. For the 2007 festival, it was reported that camping attendance was in upwards of 17,000. The campground includes a karaoke lounge, general store, and shower trucks (semi trucks with around 6 showers in each trailer).^[9] Kevin Lyman was also contracted out to do the Stagecoach Festival camping, which is usually the weekend succeeding Coachella. 2010 introduced many new features to camping such as re-entry from the campsite to the festival grounds, parking your car next to your tent and a limited number of recreational vehicle camping spots.

Sustainability[link]

The Coachella festival tries to reduce its carbon footprint on the environment every year which involves not just employees but also attendees. The festival highly promotes carpooling for its attendees which include rewards for people who participate. Attendees who choose to carpool with four or more people in one car and have the word "carpoolchella" displayed somewhere on their car have a chance to be selected by a secret spotter to win VIP tickets/pass for life for everyone in the car. In 2007 Coachella teamed up with Global Inheritance to start a 10 for 1 recycling program, in which anyone who brings ten empty water bottles will be given a fresh new water bottle for free. In 2009 the festival introduced ten dollar refillable water bottles of which purchasers would get free refills at a number of refill stations inside the festival and within the campgrounds.

See also[link]

• Lightning in a Bottle

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Alexander, Donnell. "Big Things". Los Angeles City Beat. April 26, 2007. Accessed May 15, 2007.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coachella

• Coachella Festival Official website
• Coachella Recordings
• Palm Spring Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
• URB Magazine on Coachella origins, "How the West was Won"
• Coachella: Your Survival Guide - slideshow by Life magazine
• Coachella Live on Youtube
• The Art of Coachella - Short Film
• LA Times Architecture Editor on Coachella

Coordinates: 33°40′41″N 116°14′02″W / 33.678°N 116.234°W / 33.678; -116.234

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2010)

Coachella Valley

Coachella Valley ( /koʊˈtʃɛlə/,  /koʊ.əˈtʃɛlə/)^[1] is a large valley landform in Southern California. The valley extends for approximately 45 miles (72 km) in Riverside County southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains to the saltwater Salton Sea, the largest lake in California. It is approximately 15 miles (24 km) wide along most of its length, bounded on the west by the San Jacinto Mountains and the Santa Rosa Mountains and on the north and east by the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The San Andreas Fault crosses the valley from the Chocolate Mountains in the southeast corner and along the centerline of the Little San Bernardinos. The fault is easily visible along its northern length as a strip of greenery against an otherwise bare mountain.

The Chocolate Mountains are home to a United States Navy live gunnery range and are mostly off-limits to the public. In comparison to the "Inland Empire" (Riverside-San Bernardino area and the California desert), some people refer to the IE 's sub-region Coachella Valley as the "Desert Empire" to differentiate it from the neighboring Imperial Valley. Geographers and geologists sometimes call the area, along with the Imperial Valley to the south, the "Cahuilla Basin" or the "Salton Trough".^[2]

Geographically, it is the agricultural and recreational desert valley in Southern California, United States, east of Riverside and San Bernardino. Populated by nearly 600,000 people, the valley is part of the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States, the Inland Empire.^[3] The famous desert resort cities of Palm Springs and Palm Desert lie in the Coachella Valley. The Coachella Valley is the second largest sub-region in the Inland Empire metropolitan area, after the Greater San Bernardino Area. It may be due to the number of seasonal residents in the winter months may surpassed the number of permanent residents in the total Riverside area.^{[citation needed]}

Geography and Climate[link]

Panorama of the view south from Keys View in the Little San Bernardino Mountains, Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA. Visible landmarks are the Salton Sea (230ft below sea level) at rear left, along towards the center the Santa Rosa Mountains behind Indio and the San Jacinto Mountains behind Palm Springs. In the valley floor, the San Andreas Fault is clearly visible. At the rear right is the 11,500 ft (3,500 m) San Gorgonio Mountain

The area is surrounded on the southwest by the Santa Rosa Mountains, by the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east and San Gorgonio Mountain to the north. These mountains peak at around 11,000 feet (3,400 m) and tend to average between 5,000 to 7,000 feet (1,500 to 2,000 m). Elevations on the Valley floor range from 1600 ft above sea level at the north end of the Valley to 250 ft below sea level around Mecca.^[4] Sometimes a weather system can come through one of the narrow passes, or up from the Gulf of California as Hurricane Kathleen did in September 1976. In the summer months daytime temperatures range from 104 °F (40 °C) to 112 °F (44 °C) and nighttime lows from 75 °F (24 °C) to 86 °F (30 °C). During winter, the daytime temperatures range from 68 °F (20 °C) to 88 °F (31 °C) and corresponding nights range from 46 °F (8 °C) to 65 °F (18 °C) making it a popular winter resort destination. Due to its warm year-round climate the region's agricultural sector produces fruits such as mangoes, figs and dates.

Although geographically the Valley is the northwestern extension of the Sonoran Desert to the southeast, the irrigation of over 100,000 acres (405 km²) of the Valley since the early 20th century has allowed widespread agriculture. In its 2006 annual report, the Coachella Valley Water District listed the year's total crop value at over $576 million or almost $12,000 per acre.^[5] The Coachella Canal, a concrete-lined aqueduct built between 1938 and 1948 as a branch of the All-American Canal, brings water from the Colorado River to the Valley. The Colorado River Aqueduct, which provides drinking water to Los Angeles and San Diego, crosses the northeast end of the Valley along the base of the Little San Bernardino Mountains (the Joshua Tree National Park).

The San Andreas Fault traverses the Valley's east side. Because of this fault, the Valley has many hot springs. The Santa Rosa Mountains to the West are part of the Lake Elsinore Fault zone. The results of a prehistoric sturzstrom can be seen in Martinez Canyon. The Painted Canyons of Mecca feature smaller faults as well as Precambrian, Tertiary and Quaternary rock formations, unconformities, badlands and desert landforms. Seismic activity is what triggers earthquakes, a natural, but occasionally destructive phenomena in the Coachella Valley. Fault lines cause hot water springs or geysers to rise from the ground. These natural water sources made habitation and development possible in the otherwise inhospitable desert environment of the Coachella Valley. Major earthquakes have affected the Coachella Valley. For instance, the Landers Earthquake in 1992 caused some damage in the valley. An earthquake of local origin which caused considerable damage was the 1986 North Palm Springs earthquake, which registered at a magnitude of 6.0, injuring 29 people and destroying 51 homes.^[6][7]

Ecology[link]

This desert environment hosts a variety of flora and fauna, including the endangered California Fan Palm, Washingtonia filifera,^[11] Bighorn sheep inhabit the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountain ranges, and the fringe-toed lizard, an indigenous desert reptile whose numbers are increasingly under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Desert wildlife in the Coachella Valley includes localized subspecies of ants, bats, beetles, blackbirds, bobcats, coyotes, diamondbacks, fleas, foxes, gnats, gophers, hawks, horseflies, jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, mosquitoes, mountain lions, pigeons, quails, rattlesnakes, ravens, roaches, roadrunners, scorpions, spiders, termites, ticks, vipers, wasps, whip scorpions or "vinegaroons", and wildcats.

See also:

• Geography of the Colorado Desert
• Fauna of the Colorado Desert
• Sonoran Desert wildflowers

Communities and population[link]

The Coachella Valley contains nine cities and various unincorporated communities.

The Coachella Valley is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, due in part to its location in Riverside County, California, and to real estate booms in the 1970s to 1990s. State projections estimate that the valley's population will pass 600,000 by the year 2020 and 1.1 million by 2066.^[13] Demographers believe the total population already surpassed the 500,000 mark, plus 100,000 temporary seasonal residents known as "snowbirds" arriving to stay during the winter months (from the end of October to the end of April).

The community of Palm Springs sits at the northwest end of the valley. Unincorporated areas and towns include Cabazon in the San Gorgonio Pass, and Bermuda Dunes and Thousand Palms in the east end of the valley with Indio Hills, Sky Valley, North Palm Springs and Garnet along the northern rim along with Thermal, Valerie Jean, Vista Santa Rosa, Oasis and Mecca to the southeast. The native Cahuilla tribe represented in the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Torres-Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, and the Santa Rosa Indian Reservation south of Palm Desert, each have reservations in the area.

The Coachella Valley is subdivided into portions: the West Valley made of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and sometimes Cabazon, and formerly called Down Valley became Mid Valley for Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and Indian Wells; and later East Valley for Indio, Coachella and unincorporated towns farther down, but now called South Valley which includes La Quinta, and nowadays, North Valley for Desert Hot Springs and unincorporated areas surrounding them.

Population diversity[link]

A retirement haven throughout the area's history, senior citizens and the wealthy came to live in the Coachella Valley and a large percentage of residents are age 65 or older. Therefore, the Coachella Valley has a paleoconservative and neoconservative sociocultural bent in part of a large population of Baby Boomers relocated there for retirement homes.

Though the area is somewhat politically conservative, it is nevertheless renowned for being a community that is known for its inclusion of gays and lesbians as part of a diverse community.^{[citation needed]} Current estimates are that up to 33% of Palm Springs' residents identify as gay and lesbian.^[14] Cathedral City is also home to a number of gay resorts, bars, restaurants and clubs. Many establishments along a stretch of Arenas Road in downtown Palm Springs are gay-oriented and serve as the center of the annual White Party. According to an interview with former Palm Springs mayor Ron Oden, perhaps at the time the United States' only openly gay African-American mayor,^[14] a large number of HIV/AIDS-infected individuals have moved to Palm Springs to take advantage of the extensive health-support systems that have been developed in recent years (such as the Desert AIDS Project.) For this reason, Palm Springs has one of the highest per capita rates of HIV/AIDS in the nation.

The area has a large percentage of Mexican American political figures, plus the state assembly representative Bonnie Garcia of La Quinta is of Puerto Rican parentage.

According to the Riverside County board of voter registration, the majority of moved-in (younger) registered voters are affiliated with the Democratic party, while large portions of the Coachella Valley (except Palm Springs) tend to affiliate with the Republican political party. In recent years, new suburban residents (mostly retired transplants) are usually Republican, while long time residents (mostly Hispanic) tend to be Democrat.^{[citation needed]}

The Coachella Valley was settled by a diverse array of races and ethnicities. Once viewed as predominantly Caucasian, the Coachella Valley has features of a diverse history. As of 2004, the Claritas study^[15] found that 373,100 people resided in the region. The racial makeup was 44.70% Non-Hispanic White, 49.90% Hispanic, 1.80% Black/African American, 2.10% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.40% American Indian and Eskimo, 0.10% from other races, and 1.10% from two or more races.

Origins and history[link]

In the early 20th century, less than 1,000 full-time residents from across the U.S. lived in the "village" (Palm Springs), surrounding farms and ranches, and on the Indian reservation. The 1930 U.S. census found less than half the Coachella Valley's population was "white", the rest were Mexicans especially in the eastern ends when traqueros arrived to maintain the area's railroads, and Native Americans of local tribes in what were then impoverished reservations.

Starting in the 1890s, there was a large Irish and Scottish presence in the region, after Palm Springs was an established agricultural colony called "Palm Valley" cofounded by Welwood Murray, a Scottish immigrant and John Guthrie McCallum, an American from the U.S. East coast. The two men widely advertised the colony to settlers with an interest in a warm climate and the ideal winter residence.^[16] It might explain the high percentage of East Coast Americans (New Englanders), Canadians, and British citizens in Palm Springs during the early 1900s.^{[citation needed]}

The area's population growth included members of several immigrant communities including Italians and Poles after World War II, mostly settling in a section known as "Little Tuscany" in Palm Springs. Soon, Germans, French and Scandinavians made up a segment of residents. Today, affluent tourists from Canada, Europe and Australia frequently visit and some decidedly relocated in the area. Britons are increasingly coming to Palm Springs and desert cities, for vacations or often to retire.^{[citation needed]}

Religious life[link]

The Coachella Valley has a Jewish community, and according to the United Jewish Citizens of the Desert, the Coachella Valley has an estimated 20,000 American Jews, one of California's largest Jewish communities. But all faiths and denominations are found and represented in the area, the largest church being Roman Catholic. There is also a sizable Mormon community, settling here since the early 1900s, with three branches of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^{[citation needed]}

Hispanic community[link]

Hispanic Americans are long established in Palm Springs' central and eastern sections, and have constituted the majority of the populations of Indio and Coachella for many decades. In the 2000 U.S. census, about 35 percent of Coachella Valley residents were Latino. But according to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, an estimated half (50–60 percent) of the percentage of residents are Latino.^{[citation needed]}