Indio Tutors Come To You

Indio has seen a population and popularity explosion in more recent years due to the annual music and arts festival “Coachella”. The event is held at the Empire Polo Club and attracts about 200,000 guests into the region over the two-weekend event.

Indio tutors remember how it began, as a comparatively small festival, founded in 1999 by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen. Pearl Jam had performed at the Empire Polo Club a few years prior as they were boycotting venues that were controlled by Ticketmaster. This initial large-scale concert unwittingly laid the foundation for Coachella. The founders saw the previous unrecognized potential for the event space to host a festival. Paul Tollett believed that if they put together a bunch of ‘trendy’ artists who weren’t necessarily chart successes it would still be a big draw for a lot of people. It would also allow them to be able to afford to host such an event. Big name artists were expensive and at this time Paul Tollett under “Goldenvoice” (his concert promotion company) could not compete with the likes of SFX Entertainment. They lost a lot of bands because they were unable to promise them the level of attendance and ensuing revenue that other companies could.

In Coachella’s first few years it was a single day event, but as it grew in popularity the duration of the event increased to two days, then three days and then to a second weekend. The entrance policy evolved also from being able to buy access for individual days to having to purchase weekend passes. However the continuous increase in entrance costs has not deterred guests from attending. In fact tickets are increasingly difficult to ascertain. Advance sale tickets are sold out almost immediately with phone lines jammed to buy the all access passes, V.I.P. passes and camping ground access passes. Guests are warned to stay away from buying potentially counterfeit tickets from online auction sites and other trade sites to avoid being disappointed. “Goldenvoice” who organize the event, have had to introduce many levels of personalization and last minute shipping of passes to try and cut down on the amount of fake passes in circulation.

The beauty of Coachella is the variety of acts and musical genres that include hip hop, rock, indie, electronic and dance. Also there is a combination of established musical acts alongside newcomers. Indio tutors believe this provides both great exposure for new acts, and for visitors open minded to hearing new talent and their new fresh sounds. The event also houses art in other forms with several art installations and sculptures on display.

To this day Coachella is one of the largest and most profitable music festivals in the United States and all over the world. It has led to other festivals also being scheduled to take place in Indio including “Desert Trip” and “Stagecoach”.