The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is known by the name Coachella, which is also the name of a city in Riverside County, California. Coachella is a music festival held once a year in Indio, California, which is also in Riverside County. Coachella takes place over the last weekend in April. Since the first official Coachella festival in 1999, the event’s popularity has grown to the point where the festival’s original two days have been extended to three.
The Empire Polo Fields in Indio plays host to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. On November 5, 1993, the alternative rock bands Tool and Pearl Jam performed in front of nearly 25,000 fans at this location. Despite Indio’s harsh desert heat and distance from major cities in California, Arizona, and Nevada, the Empire Polo Fields proved to be an appropriate venue for a large-scale concert. The first official Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival took place on October 9 and 10, 1999. Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Tool, Morrissey, Rage Against the Machine, Jurassic 5 and DJ Shadow were among the artists on the bill.
Coachella was not held in the year 2000, allegedly due to a lack of funding. The festival, however, was reorganized in 2001. Coachella was held in April this year, avoiding the peak of the California desert summer, and the recently reunited band Jane’s Addiction headlined the event. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival grew in popularity and interest around the world in the years that followed.
Coachella has a strong artistic presence in addition to live music. Each year’s celebrations include sculpture and installation art. Many of the interactive art installations are strategically placed around the Empire Polo Fields’ lawns in areas where festival attendees are likely to walk among them. Visual artists who perform at Coachella frequently do so for more than a year, whereas only a few musical artists have done so more than once.
Coachella has had a long tradition of camping, dating back to the 2002 festival. Guests who choose to camp will do so near the festival grounds, on a nearby polo field. Coachella only allows tent camping, and there are a number of rules in place to protect the grounds from damage and pollution. Glass, alcohol, open fires, and cooking devices, for example, are prohibited on the campgrounds. Guests are also prohibited from bringing blankets, chairs, outside food and beverage, audio recording equipment, professional cameras, and, of course, drugs and alcohol to the lawn where the music and art are performed. Coachella organizers have also set up a water bottle recycling system. Guests who bring ten empty plastic water bottles to be recycled will receive a complimentary bottle of water.