44 Fun Facts About Coachella

In which California city is Coachella held?

Indio is home to the Empire Polo Club, a desert drive of two hours or more from Los Angeles. The festival's full name honours the whole Coachella Valley, not the separate city of Coachella.

Which band's 1993 Empire Polo Club concert, staged to dodge Ticketmaster, seeded Coachella?

Pearl Jam refused to play buildings tied to Ticketmaster, so 25,000 fans came out to a desert polo field instead. When shoes began to fly, the band played one song hidden behind its amplifier stacks.

Which promoter, which made its name booking Los Angeles punk shows in the 1980s, organises Coachella?

Goldenvoice took the punk gigs that established promoters would not touch, then gave Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers early Southern California shows. The entertainment giant AEG bought the company in 2001.

The peaceful first Coachella came three months after riots wrecked another 1999 festival, earning it which nickname?

The anti-Woodstock was the Los Angeles Times's verdict on a weekend of free parking, a free bottle of water at the gate and a crowd that policed itself. It was held in October, in triple-digit heat.

Which three acts headlined the first Coachella in 1999?

Beck, Tool and Rage Against the Machine topped a bill of some 75 acts, and the weekend stayed calm. When someone threw a burning object at the stage before Rage's set, the crowd scolded him rather than cheer.

The first Coachella lost around $800,000; how did its headliners help the promoter survive?

Waited months for their pay: some acts were paid up to five months late, and one band handed half its fee back. 'We should have asked for a piece of the pie,' its guitarist joked twenty years on.

What happened to Coachella in the year 2000?

It was not held at all: its founder blamed a crowded Southern California concert calendar and chose to wait for spring 2001. The polo field hosted a rave, Nocturnal Wonderland, that September instead.

Which band did Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell reunite to rescue the single-day 2001 Coachella as its headliner?

Jane's Addiction had not played since 1997, and the festival's return had been close to sinking for want of a suitable headliner. Farrell had sung at the first Coachella as a solo act.

Which Palm Desert band became the first local act to play Coachella, in 2002?

Queens of the Stone Age grew out of Kyuss, a band forged at generator parties out in the desert nearby. Frontman Josh Homme was playing a short drive from where he grew up.

Which reunited band, whose song Where Is My Mind? closes the film Fight Club, played Coachella's first sellout in 2004?

The Pixies had ended in 1993 when their singer quit by fax, never having got beyond clubs and small theatres in America. Eleven years on they played at dusk to a vast crowd and nearly stole the show from Radiohead.

Which duo's 2006 pyramid-shaped stage is among the most memorable Coachella performances?

Daft Punk unveiled their screen-covered pyramid that night and took it round the world for 48 shows. The Guardian called the set as significant for American dance music as the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show were for rock'n'roll.

Which country music festival did Coachella's promoter launch at the same site in 2007?

Stagecoach baffled its rock-minded promoters, who put up flyers in feed stores and farm-equipment shops. Once they saw the crowd, founder Paul Tollett said, they realised they should have put them up on college campuses.

Whose inflatable prop pig flew away during his 2008 Coachella headline set?

Roger Waters had lost one before: at the photo shoot for the sleeve of Pink Floyd's Animals, a pig broke its rope over Battersea Power Station and drifted up into Heathrow's flight path.

Which headliner played nearly an hour past Coachella's midnight curfew in 2009, at a cost of $1,000 a minute?

Paul McCartney played for nearly three hours and ran 54 minutes over. Asked whether anyone had thought of cutting off a Beatle, a police spokesman said some people had wanted to, but that it was never going to happen.

What ticketing change did Coachella make in 2010 that drew mixed reactions?

It sold three-day passes only because, founder Paul Tollett said, the valley had too few hotel rooms and day visitors clogged the roads. Fans who wanted a single day started an online petition.

Which platform began streaming Coachella live and free to fans at home in 2011?

YouTube showed only the opening weekend for years. Watching from the sofa grew into a ritual of its own, widely nicknamed Couchella.

When Coachella doubled to two weekends in 2012, how did the second weekend's lineup compare with the first?

The same acts played again, and both weekends sold out in under three hours. Rolling Stone had called it a very risky move, but founder Paul Tollett told his sceptical partners that two Coachellas had to be better than one.

A projection of which late rapper appeared alongside Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella 2012?

Tupac Shakur was no hologram: the image was bounced off an angled see-through screen, a version of the Pepper's ghost trick of 19th-century magicians. His famously protective mother was said to be thrilled.

Which reunited hip-hop duo headlined the Friday of Coachella 2014?

Outkast had not shared a stage in eight years, and the comeback fell flat: Andre 3000 later called the show horrible. He took to wearing a jumpsuit with a new slogan each night so that he felt in on the joke.

Who made a surprise appearance during Drake's weekend-one headline set in 2015?

Madonna walked on thirty minutes in, just after Drake had performed a song named after her, and kissed him. His startled face went round the world, and he posted the next day: 'Don't misinterpret my shock!!'

Why did Beyoncé pull out of headlining Coachella in 2017, a year before her celebrated set there?

She was pregnant with twins, and her doctors advised a less rigorous schedule. The same statement promised that she would headline in 2018 instead, a booking the New York Times had called a major coup for the festival.

Which small tent, added in 2017 for punk and Latin acts, shares its name with a desert that straddles the Mexican border?

Sonora was booked by Rene Contreras, a promoter in his early twenties who was friends with the bands from Mexico that founder Paul Tollett wanted. Tollett said he did what he rarely does and handed over the keys.

Which large hangar-like tent generally hosts Coachella's top electronic dance music acts?

Sahara crowds spilled 200 feet beyond the tent, and fans complained that dance music had outgrown it. In 2018 it was rebuilt 25 percent larger next door, shaped like what founder Paul Tollett calls a giant Quonset hut.

Beyoncé's 2018 headline set, nicknamed Beychella, paid tribute to what?

Historically Black colleges and universities gave the show its homecoming theme: a marching band and drumlines stacked on pyramid bleachers, and Beyoncé dressed as the head of a sorority with a crest of her own.

Beyoncé's 2018 performance made her the first what to headline Coachella?

African-American woman was a first she marked herself. 'Thank you for allowing me to be the first black woman to headline Coachella,' she said from the top of her pyramid stage, and followed it with a wry aside.

Who became Coachella's youngest headliner to date in 2019, aged 25?

Ariana Grande was also only the fourth woman to top the bill, and brought out members of 'NSync to sing with her. Her record lasted three years: Billie Eilish headlined in 2022 at 20.

When the pandemic struck in March 2020, what did Coachella's organisers first do with that April's festival?

Postponed it to October was the plan in March, but by June the county's public health officer had called off the new dates too. The April 2021 edition went the same way, and the festival did not return until 2022.

Who pulled out of Coachella 2022 eleven days before it opened, leaving Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd to fill in?

Kanye West gave no reason, but a petition to drop him had drawn almost 50,000 signatures. Weeks earlier he had threatened to quit unless fellow headliner Billie Eilish apologised to Travis Scott.

Bad Bunny and Blackpink made history at Coachella 2023 as the festival's first what?

Latin and Asian headliners arrived in the same weekend. Three songs in, Bad Bunny asked the crowd whether he should speak English or Spanish and got a roar of 'Español!'; Blackpink were also the first all-female group to top the bill.

What elaborate staging did Frank Ocean scrap at the last minute before his 2023 set?

An ice rink with over 100 skaters had been rehearsed on for a month when a leg injury, his team said, forced him to scrap it hours before the show. About 30 of the skaters paced the stage on foot instead.

Which band reunited for its first shows since 2015 at Coachella 2024?

No Doubt had not played together in nine years. Olivia Rodrigo, who credits their album Return of Saturn as an influence on her songwriting, ran on as a surprise guest to sing its single Bathwater.

Who headlined in 2002 and 2007, the only woman to top Coachella's bill in two different years before Lady Gaga?

Björk was the first woman to headline at all, in 2002, and after her 2007 return no woman topped the bill for a decade. Lady Gaga ended that wait in 2017 only as a late replacement, after Beyoncé withdrew.

Which artist headlined Coachella 2026 as the first Latina to do so?

Karol G waited until late in her set to introduce herself, as Carolina Giraldo from Medellín. She told the crowd she was proud to be the first, but that after 27 years of the festival it also felt late.

How did Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen come to own the company behind Coachella?

Its arrested owner signed it over: in 1991 Gary Tovar, facing drug charges, handed the business to his two young employees. Van Santen died of flu complications in December 2003, aged 41, months before Coachella's first sellout.

At which 1997 British festival did Paul Tollett hand out pamphlets pitching a festival at the Empire Polo Club?

Glastonbury was a swamp that summer: 'Worst rain ever,' Tollett recalled. His pamphlet showed the polo field in desert sunshine, and he said everyone he handed one to was laughing.

Which reunited band headlined Coachella 2016 with its singer confined to a throne by a broken foot?

Guns N' Roses had Axl Rose and Slash back together after more than twenty years, days after Rose broke his foot. He sang from a throne borrowed from Dave Grohl and brought out Angus Young of AC/DC as a guest.

Why did Coachella's founder threaten in 2012 to move the festival to a new site by 2015?

A proposed tax on tickets had been voted down by the council, but one councilman wanted it put to a referendum. The next spring the festival agreed to stay through 2030, and the city's cut of each ticket more than doubled.

Which Radiohead song did Prince cover in a show-stealing Coachella set in 2008?

Creep ran to eight minutes in Prince's hands. His label had fan videos of it pulled from the web, and when Thom Yorke heard, he said Prince should unblock it, since it was Radiohead's song.

The 'Carpoolchella' programme, launched in 2007, offers carpooling groups a chance to win which top prize?

VIP tickets for life go to cars picked at the gates by a secret spotter, who looks for four or more people inside and the word Carpoolchella on display. Lesser prizes include backstage passes and Ferris wheel rides.

Which giant figure roamed Coachella's grounds in 2014 and returned in 2019 looking scarred by five years of travel?

An astronaut 36 feet tall, built by the studio Poetic Kinetics, showed fans' faces in its visor and became a symbol of the 2014 festival. It came back with a scorched suit and a visor splattered by alien insects.

Which European brewer is Coachella's official beer sponsor and runs its own small music venue on the grounds?

Heineken has a small house of its own, where George Clinton has played, but no logo goes on the main stages. Founder Paul Tollett says that when a band plays it should be you and the band, a sacred moment.

Which 2016 festival brought the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and the Who to Coachella's polo field for two weekends?

Desert Trip, soon nicknamed Oldchella, put six giants of 1960s rock on one bill. Founder Paul Tollett flew to Buenos Aires to pitch it to Mick Jagger, in a dressing-room meeting that lasted twelve minutes.

Which company released the 2019 concert film that Beyoncé directed about her Coachella show?

Netflix released the film a year after the show, alongside a live album. It shows eight months of rehearsal, and in it she vows never to push herself that far again.

What weather, rare for the desert, met the crowd on the opening day of Coachella 2012?

Cold rain and wind made it a day like no other in the festival's history, Rolling Stone wrote, with some of the longest queues for hot coffee. A week later the second weekend opened in heat above 100 degrees.