The 13 Facts You Never Knew About Coachella
The lineup for Coachella 2014 has just been announced, so of course everyone's going to be regurgitating it all day long, debating the artists that were selected and talking about how much EDM is featured at this year's festival.
We'll get to the lineup, but first let's take a look at some of the rare secrets of Coachella:
1) In 1999, when the festival first started, it lost $800,000 with a lineup full of esteemed acts like Beck, Tool, The Chemical Brothers, Morrissey and Rage Against the Machine.
2) The ATM fees are insane, so make sure to stuff cash into your socks, or another good hiding spot. Trust no one.
3) In 2011, Rascal Flatts' Joe McMarcus gave concert-goers crazy news when he told them that Osama Bin Laden had just been killed:
"Let's have a hand for the U.S. military... I hope I speak for everyone here when I say 'Osama bin Laden, I hope you rest in pieces'."
Of course, chants of "USA! USA!" exploded back in response.
4) Coachella, California is a very small city of just more than 40,000. So when they get the chance to hold a music festival full of millennials drinking and drugging, they're looking to make some arrests. In 2013, 90 people were arrested during three days of the festival. Keep your eyes open, no lacking.
5) The festival is moving away from rock, pop and hip-hop, favoring EDM artists, especially this year. For people who enjoy the hip-hop acts, this is rough. For Skrillex, it means a new lease on life.
6) Not everyone who attends cares/knows anything about music, or how to function as a human:
7) In 2004, Coachella first sold out, with Radiohead headlining. Now tickets for the festival sell out within a few hours, so be vigilant if you want to go: Tickets go on sale Friday, Jan. 10 at 10 am PST (1 pm EST) on coachella.com. General admission for an entire weekend starts at $375.
8) Coachella is the most profitable music festival in the US today.
9) Originally, fans weren't allowed to camp at Coachella, following the horrible events of Woodstock '99. But in 2003, Coachella started allowing concert-goers to pitch tents in the festival.
10) In 2012 camp grounds began featuring recycling, showers, a general store, phone charging stations and an Internet cafe with free WiFi.
11) Veteran promoter Paul Tollett is the man behind Coachella, and talked about the early days of the festival, when it was extremely broke and had trouble paying performers and employees:
“Rage Against The Machine, Beck, Tool. 'That last payment? Hold on to it' they said. I've never really seen that at other concerts we've done...employees were willing to take a paycheck guaranteed to bounce.”
He did pretty well for himself though, with just the 2012 festival grossing over $47 million.
12) Speaking of 2012, that's when Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg brought out the computer-generated version of their old friend Tupac Shakur:
Let us all pray that this trend continues.
13) Don't be a naked wizard man at Coachella. You will be tazed.
Now that you have this valuable information, let's take a look at the lineup for 2014:
Friday, April 11 & 18
Outkast, the Knife, the Replacements, Broken Bells, Zedd, Girl Talk, Ellie Goulding, Chromeo, Haim, Neko Case, AFI, Martin Garrix, Bonobo, Bryan Ferry, the Glitch Mob, the Afghan Whigs, the Cult, Bastille, Flume, Aloe Blacc, Jagwar Ma,
A$AP Ferg, Grouplove, Woodkid, Carnage, Shlohmo, Gareth Emery, Michael Brun, MS MR, Kate Nash, Hot Since 82, Damian Lazarus, GOAT, Nina Kraviz, Anthony Green, Duke Dumont, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Solomun, ZZ Ward,
Anti-Flag, Caravan Palace, Flatbush Zombies, Deorro, Waxahatchee, Title Fight, Davide Squillace, DJ Falcon, Dum Dum Girls, Austra, Tom Odell, Dixon, Wye Oak, Crosses, Mako, the Preatures, the Bots, Gabba Gabba Heys
Saturday, April 12 & 19
Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Skrillex, Pharrell Williams, Lorde, Foster the People, Pet Shop Boys, MGMT, Empire of the Sun, Fatboy Slim, Nas, Kid Cudi, the Head and the Heart, Sleigh Bells, Cage the Elephant, City and Colour, Chvrches,
Dillon Francis, Capital Cities, the Naked and Famous, Temples, Mogwai, Warpaint, Solange, Washed Out, Future Islands, Ty Segall, DARKSIDE, Banks, Tiga, Bombay Bicycle Club, Holy Ghost!, Netsky, RL Grime, Galantis, Foxygen, White Lies,
Graveyard, the Internet, Laura Mvula, the Dismemberment Plan, Headhunterz, Blood Orange, GTA, TJR, Cajmere, Guy Gerber, Nicole Moudaber, MAKJ, Bear Hands, the Magician, Young & Sick, Unlocking the Truth, Saints of Valory, Carbon Airways, UZ, Syd Arthur, Bicep, Drowners
Sunday, April 13 & 20
Arcade Fire, Beck, Calvin Harris, Neutral Milk Hotel, Disclosure, Lana Del Rey, Motörhead, Alesso, Duck Sauce, Little Dragon, Beady Eye, Flosstradamus, the Toy Dolls, the 1975, Adventure Club, Big Gigantic, Chance the Rapper, Laurent Garnier,
Krewella, Rudimental, STRFKR, Fishbone, Trombone Shorty, AlunaGeorge, Art Department, Flight Facilities, Frank Turner, John Newman, Maceo Plex, Superchunk, Bombino, Daughter, Bad Manners, Surfer Blood, Lee Burridge,
Poolside, Classixx, Showtek, James Vincent McMorrow, Bo Ningen, Aeroplane, Ratkin, Jhené Aiko, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, Factory Floor, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Anne Lunoe, the Martinez Brothers, Scuba, John Beaver
Top PhotoCredit: Getty Images
