50 Fun Facts About Coachella

In which California city is Coachella held?

The Empire Polo Club sits in the Coachella Valley of the Colorado Desert, about 22 miles southeast of Palm Springs.

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

Almost 25,000 fans came out for the Vs. Tour show, proving the polo grounds could handle a big crowd.

Which promotion company organises Coachella?

It has been a subsidiary of AEG since Paul Tollett sold it for $7 million in March 2001, and it also runs Stagecoach.

In which month was the very first Coachella held in 1999?

It came three months after the riots and fires of Woodstock '99, and the well-behaved crowd earned it the nickname 'the anti-Woodstock'.

Which three acts headlined the first Coachella in 1999?

Tickets were $50 a day, attendees got a free bottle of water, and Goldenvoice still lost $850,000.

How much money did the promoter lose on the first Coachella?

The headliners agreed to deferred pay, and Tollett said the company struggled for almost two years to survive.

What happened to Coachella in the year 2000?

Tollett blamed too many festivals in Southern California; the site hosted the EDM event Nocturnal Wonderland instead.

Which reunited band saved the single-day 2001 Coachella by agreeing to headline?

Perry Farrell's group stepped in when the event was struggling to book a headliner; 32,000 people came.

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

That year Björk and Oasis headlined and Siouxsie and the Banshees reunited.

In which year did Coachella first allow on-site camping?

Indio approved 2,252 camping spots with up to four people each, the same year Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys headlined.

Coachella's first sellout, in 2004 with Radiohead and the Cure, featured which reunited band?

For the first time the crowd included fans from all 50 states; 110,000 attended over two days.

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

The same year Madonna played to an overflowing dance tent while Depeche Mode and Tool headlined.

Coachella expanded to three days in which year?

The change came alongside the launch of Stagecoach, which made a long-term lease of the polo grounds financially viable.

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

It runs the weekend after Coachella and is the largest and highest-grossing country festival in the world.

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

That year the festival failed to sell out for the first time since 2003 and lost money on its big-name fees.

By how many minutes did Paul McCartney overrun the strict curfew at Coachella 2009?

Two nights later the festival cut the Cure's power after they went 30 minutes over.

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

Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz headlined and thousands of fans broke through the fences that year.

Since which year has YouTube livestreamed Coachella?

The first weekend went out on three channels; AXS TV later televised weekend two.

Coachella first ran on two identical weekends in which year?

Rolling Stone called it 'a very risky move'; Tollett wanted to meet demand without overcrowding the field.

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

Though called a hologram, it used the Musion Eyeliner system, a modern version of the Victorian Pepper's ghost illusion.

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

General admission sold out in under 20 minutes and the festival grossed a then-record $78.3 million.

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

AC/DC and Jack White were the other headliners as the festival set records for tickets sold and gross.

How many people attended Coachella in 2017, when it grossed $114.6 million?

Radiohead, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar headlined after Beyoncé withdrew on doctors' advice while pregnant.

Which small tent, introduced in 2017, hosts punk rock and Latin acts?

Yuma arrived in 2013 for underground DJs, while Gobi and Mojave take their names from deserts.

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

It was expanded to 80 feet high in 2013 and rebuilt 25 percent larger in 2018 on the neighbouring Eldorado Polo Club.

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

It featured a marching band and majorettes, a Destiny's Child reunion, and drew 458,000 simultaneous YouTube viewers.

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

The Weeknd and Eminem were the other headliners, and the whole festival reached 41 million livestream viewers.

Who became Coachella's youngest ever headliner in 2019, at 25?

She was only the festival's fourth female headliner; Justin Timberlake had reportedly been booked before bruising his vocal cords.

Which two years did Coachella skip because of the COVID-19 pandemic?

The 2020 lineup of Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean was postponed to October before being cancelled outright.

Who pulled out of Coachella 2022 two weeks before, leaving Swedish House Mafia and the Weeknd to fill in?

Arcade Fire were quietly added to the schedule that year without headline billing.

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

Frank Ocean's set the same year lost its ice rink and 100 skaters at the last minute and he pulled out of weekend two.

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

Crew had to melt the ice in a hurry; he started an hour late and ended abruptly after passing curfew.

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

Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat headlined, and weekend one took nearly a month to sell out.

In 2025 Lady Gaga became only the second woman to headline Coachella twice. Who was the first?

Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott were the other 2025 headliners; Gaga's set was hailed as 'an all-timer'.

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

Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Anyma shared the top billing between April 10 and 19.

Coachella's co-founder Rick Van Santen died in December 2003 at what age?

Left alone, Paul Tollett sold half of the festival and a controlling interest to AEG in 2004.

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

He recalled everyone laughing at pictures of dry Coachella amid Glastonbury's mud.

In its early years, where did most of Coachella's art installations come from?

From 2010 to 2015 Goldenvoice switched to commissioning pieces, giving artists just 10 days on site to build them.

Coachella's promoter has sued outlets for using which suffix on their event names?

Targets included Hoodchella, Filmchella, Sean Combs's Combschella and even a Palm Desert Whole Foods.

In 2016 the Indio City Council raised Coachella's daily attendance cap from 99,000 to what?

Goldenvoice added about 50 acres to the site, and reunited LCD Soundsystem and Guns N' Roses headlined that year.

How large is the Empire Polo Club venue that hosts Coachella?

Founded in 1987 with twelve polo grounds, it has leased its fields to Goldenvoice every year since 1993.

Coachella agreed a deal in 2013 to stay in Indio through which year?

Indio's cut rose from $2.33 to $5.01 per ticket; Blur, the Stone Roses, Phoenix and Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined that year.

Coachella's music tents are named after what?

Mojave, Gobi and Sahara have been there since the start; the small Yuma tent for underground DJs arrived in 2013.

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

Through 2014, 140,000 people had taken part and more than 70 had won lifetime passes.

Which art collective built Coachella's giant moving snail, astronaut and caterpillar installations?

Artists get just 10 days on the grounds to assemble their pieces, and only about half are ever rebuilt elsewhere because reassembly is so costly.

Which brewer has been Coachella's 'official brew' since 2002 and sponsors its own on-site venue?

Founder Paul Tollett still refuses to let sponsor logos on the stages, calling the moment between band and audience 'sacred'.

Which 2016 Goldenvoice festival at the Empire Polo Club featured the Stones, McCartney and Dylan?

Five years earlier the same site hosted the Big 4 festival with Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.

How much were Beyoncé's 2018 Coachella performances reportedly worth to her?

Ariana Grande reportedly earned the same the next year, while headliners in 2017 had received $3 to 4 million.

Coachella's radius clause bars acts from other North American festivals from December 15 until when?

Details emerged when Oregon's Soul'D Out Festival sued AEG in 2018 over the anti-competitive terms.

What was the hottest temperature recorded during Coachella's history, on April 21, 2012?

Remarkably, the coldest reading, 43 °F, came just a week earlier during the same year's first weekend.