Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The idea of Coachella started on November 5, 1993. Pearl Jam hosted a concert at the Empire Polo Club fields, nearly 25,000 people sat and watched Pearl Jam on the field. This concert was held during the boycott of Tickmaster and the Southern California auditoriums it controlled. 

In October of 1999 the very first Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was held. Around 25,000 people went to this two-day event, and enjoyed performances from Tool, Morrissey, Beck, and The Chemical Brothers. The festival how ever was not as successful to create a net profit. Many people complained about the unbearable heat, and the inconvenience of no campsite grounds available outside the festival grounds. 

With the profit loss in 1999 the festival skipped out in 2000. They wanted to take time to figure a way to improve the festival to make it more profitable so it can continue the following years.

In 2001 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was brought back but held in April to avoid the scorching heat of the summer. Also because of money issues the promoters reduced the festival days to only one day. The festival was rather successful compared to in 1999. In 2001 they were able to get Perry Farrell, and had Jane's Addiction headline.


The following year in 2002 Coachella went back to having it on two-days. They proved themselves to be profitable and successful, having Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bjork, and Oasis as headliners. They also created campgrounds for attendees to stay at, which made it much easier for them to go to the festival.

Finally in 2003 Coachella started to create attention worldwide. This year had the largest crowd with headliners of Iggy Pop and The Stooges, Beastie Boys, and Red Hot chili Peppers.

An even more successful year was in 2004 with headliners like the Pixies, Radiohead, The Cure. This was the first time the festival sold out with 50,000 tickets for each day. The line-ups were starting to be great from the small bands to the headliners. Coachella began to give itself a name from the rest of the festivals.

The festival in 2005 sold out and was another profitable year. In 2006, Coachella sold out yet again. They had Daft Punk as the main headliner.

Then the following year in 2007 Coachella had almost 100,000 attendees and the festival was extended from two-day to three days. This year it also sold out the fastest, the headliner that stirred all the attention was Rage Against the Machine.

When things started to be looking up the event in 2008 didn't sell out. This hasn't happened since 2003, and with headliners like Prince, Jack Johnson, and The Verve the festival promoters were shocked.


Even though the past event in 2008 didn't sell out, in 2009 it was sold out with a few days before the event. Their headliners consisted of Paul McCartney, The Cure, Leonard Cohen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Morrissey.

In 2010, Coachella had over 75,000 attendees each day and over the three days they had a reported of 225,000 attendees. when only 60,000 3-day passes were sold, it was proven that year that security was not doing its job. No surprise that everyone wanted to go because of the incredible line-up that included Jay-Z, Muse, Gorillaz, Atoms for Peace, Tiesto, and many more.

After an over crowded festival last year, in 2011 they tightened up the security. Coachella promoters created wristbands that are able to be scanned with entry, and no one was allowed to come with in a radius of a mile to the festival grounds if they did not have a proper wristband. There were check points where cops would check each car to see if all passengers had a wristband.

As for the line-up that year, it wasn't as strong as 2010 but still none the less amazing bands. The headliners included Kanye West with surprise guest Justin Vernon, Kings of Leon, Mumford & Sons, and Arcade Fire.
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