November 5, 1993 Pearl Jam played a gig in front of an audience of 25,000 people on the Empire Polo Club grounds. This is the same space that Coachella has been held for twelve festivals.
This Pearl Jam gig was so iconic because it marks a shift in ticket sale practice - the service charge. For a period of time, Pearl Jam avoided Ticketmaster altogether because of a gig they had previously played where they were later informed that each ticket was slapped with a service charge. Profits from this bit obviously going to Ticketmaster. It's a funny thought because service fees are a household procedure now - small ticket retailers try to nix the service fee, but still you'll find a buck or two tacked on to each ticket.
Pearl Jam were giving Ticketmaster the boot for this event (and many others, I'm sure) because they hugely disagreed with the extra cut for the company on each ticket.
It's kind of funny to think about this all because in my time working for the company, I realised it's not just Ticketmaster that takes the cut, but in addition Sunrise (or whatever host runs the Ticketmaster outlet) will take a partial cut based on the tickets sold. It was rumoured that Malcom and Roy Pearlman, the owners of Sunrise Records and Jean Machine got a five or ten cent profit from each ticket printed out.
The Empire Polo Grounds is a tricky venue for a number of reasons. Firstly the land, one of America's hottest and driest spots and secondly there's a fifty mile drive from the city was far from the life. Somehow the festival manages to seriously flourish each year, despite the time travel cost and the excruciating heat.
The first festival was several years later in October of 1999, with only two days of music. It was miraculously held only three months after Woodstock '99. As a result of the riots and fires that accompanied Woodstock, Coachella was not permitted to allow onsite camping, a ban that was continued until 2002. About 25,000 people attended the first festival with big names like Rage Against the Machine, Beck, Jurassic 5 and DJ Shadow.
Despite the solid acts in the first festival, Coachella was a flop as far as revenues go. They were unable to generate any profit almost resulting in the end of the music festival. They failed to continue in 2000, which was likely because of the financial bind they were in because of the first year. Live and learn, I suppose. The festival has been running strong since 2001 with incredible acts like Paul McCartney, Madonna, My Bloody Valentine, Iggy Pop, Morrissey and Leonard Cohen.
When California folk as about the festival, they usually associate it with Stagecoach (Coachella's sister country festival) and Burning Man. Both pretty different, but impressive in their own rights. California is well-endowed with some pretty classy (and also not so classy) music festivals.
Coachella now offers brilliant camp sites, with or without a car and somewhat comfortable showers and toilets. It's gotta be the best going rate for a four night stay in California.
Coachella has grown from a simple boycott to something people use to escape into another world of music and artistic splendor.
Keep up, more words on the festival are coming, once I get more sleep!
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