Coachella Fest 2014 Rocks the Valley
Coachella Fest featuring more than 150 acts performing on several stages kicks off April 11-13 and April 18-20. As in past years, the same lineups will play two consecutive weekends. Coachella Fest has established itself in the recent years as one of the country’s premier music festivals. A reunited OutKast received top line billing for Friday, Muse will headline the Saturday shows, and Arcade Fire will close out Sunday nights. The 2014 festival will also feature Lorde, The Replacements, Beck, Neutral Milk Hotel, Queens of the Stone Age, Nas, Calvin Harris, Broken Bells, Motörhead, Haim, Neko Case, MGMT, Girl Talk, Foster the People, Ellie Goulding, Lana Del Rey, Pharrell Williams, Lucent Dossier Experience, Young & Sick, Chromeo and Mogwai among others.
The other half of the festival is dedicated to visual arts, including installation art and sculpture. Most of the pieces are interactive, providing a visual treat to the attendees walking amongst the festival grounds. Some of the works are featured at Burnisel and involves participants from architecture schools, both local and international. A few of the visual artists, such as Hotshot the Robot, Robochrist Industries, the Tesla Coil (Cauac), Cyclecide, and The Do LaB, alongside avant-garde performance troupe Lucent Dossier Experience, have appeared for several consecutive years. Poster artist Emek produces limited edition posters.
The success of Coachella in its early years proved music festivals could work and succeed in a destination form, as opposed to a traveling festival. The year of Coachella’s debut was also the year of Woodstock ’99, which was marred by riots, fires, and rapes, turning many people off music festivals. In the years following Coachella’s success, many other festivals have followed in its footsteps, copying its format as a destination festival with multiple stages, attractions, art, and camping. Some of these new festivals have grown to achieve the same success as Coachella, such as Lollapalooza in Chicago and Bonnaroo in Tennessee.
The Coachella festival tries to reduce its carbon footprint on the environment every year. The festival highly promotes carpooling for its attendees that include rewards for people who participate. Travelers 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 for life for everyone in the car.
One of the most popular festivals is the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, which last year drew over 200,000 music lovers to the Empire Polo Club for three days of performances by some of the best artists from around the world. This year it promises to once again amaze, entertain and awe. For complete performer line-up & info go to www.coachella.com
