Coachella 2012, order now!
 

Wow, crazy changes for Coachella next years.

First, it will happen twice, on consecutive weekends (presumably with fewer tickets sold per weekend), with the intent to book the exact same acts for both weekends.

Secondly, tickets go on sale now. Or soon. June 3rd.

Wow.

So it makes me wonder if there will be a Stage Coach this year and if this is a way to fulfill lease agreements and maybe bring in more money.

Perhaps they can restrict one weekend to 3-day passes and the other to single day sales?

I don't know, but the whole thing sounds kind of goofy to me.

Um, absolutely insane (the buy-tickets-now thing). Good thing I won't miss it.

Last year Stagecoach was two weeks after Coachella. I can't see them cancelling, it's always packed.

I refuse to buy tickets for something when I don't know the line up.

That was the strange part to me, that they are selling tickets before they announce who's playing!

Electric Daisy Carnival starts on June 24 in Vegas. Tickets are something like $200/day and they've sold over 160,000 so far... The lineup still has yet to be announced.

Glastonbury now sells out the day tickets go on sale months before any line-up is announced so that's well precedented in the festival world. The duplicate festival is a new twist that should be interesting to see how it works out. I suppose where in the past you might have to agonize over a scheduling conflict, now you can go both times and see what you missed the first time around.

Heehee, this is crazy. EDC was one of our best times ever, though you'd have to set the way-back machine for 1999. :D What's the venue like these days?

I'm not shocked that they sell tix before the bands are booked. If I had the cash (and no baby) I'd be there every day of the festival, every year, regardless. Just being there is amazing, and discovering fantastic music by wandering around is part of the joy of it.

The duplicate weekend has me wondering what I would do...go for the first weekend when the feeling is fresh, or the second, when the sound is sure to be better? Sound is quite often an issue, but to think that it would be a bit rehearsed is kind of a bummer. I like Chris' idea of going to both so you can see EVERYTHING. :D

This morning Kevin and Bean were discussing that this is a concept they want to do but there is no guarantee that any band will return for the duplicate weekend. Touring schedules are created way in advance and they are hedging their bets that all the bands they want have nothing better to do those two weekends.

Yes, but they are probably hedging their bets with a boat load of $. Which would be why they want to sell tickets so early, so they can afford to promise bands enough to hold them for a week+.

Of course, a lot of bands schedule dates in and around the SoCal area prior to Coachella weekend, so I imagine a lot of those dates will end up happening between the two weekends (either instead, or in addition to), so bands can still make a good trip out of it.

To add to BTD's post the article I read earlier also stated that Coachella as a part of their contracts with the bands don't let them play any nearby venues for a period of time before/after the festival. So are bands going to be willing to give up that week in between?

I also wonder if it will really make tickets more available as I can guess that a large number of people will then want to go both weekends so they fit in the acts they miss the first go round.

Plus it totally messes up Polo season ;)

A large number of peoe might want to see both, but as it is 3 days is already a costly commitment once you add food & lodging into the picture. Of course they've been selling VIP passes and luxury tents for a couple years now so maybe there are enough people to drop several grand into the event.

Hmm, I thought I'd always seen the bands playing in the area, but maybe that was further from the date than I realized.

Usually some of the bands end up doing stealth shows at the Glass House (Goldenvoice venue) right before or after Coachella. I suspect well see more of that, especially if there are sell outs.

I'm just glad I never went to Coachella and have never had much of a desire to.

Despite what other festivals may do, I would never be interested in buying tickets before I knew what bands were playing. Something like EDC is, I imagine, completely different - in that I'm not sure if attendies of that event even care who makes the music. I could be wrong, but in any event - no line-up, no money from me. I'm glad my music festival days preceded this development.