Is Coachella Over Priced?

[indierockcafe]

Does anyone else think Coachella (with all its sponsors pitching in too) is charging too much? Three day pass for 249. That's a lot of money, plus if you want to camp it's another $45 a day, and you can't even hardly bring anything with you. And the hotels in the area, even the run-down, are not less than 180 a night during those three days.

But, the line up is amazing and being with all those people can be quite an experience as well. I think they jam-pack too many artists into the available time slots, but there all almost great and bands that I reguarily blog about at

I'll be writing a series of stories over the next few weeks about the festival and the arists appearing.

Check out Indie Rock Cafe

[David_w]

Well, I think it's totally over priced. The bands that'll come are amazing! But I think hotels, motels and offsite camps are pulling way too much money out of our pockets. 180 per night, it's sick! But I guess that's the way it is.. It'll be my first time on Coachella.. and well, has it always been that expensive?

[gavdann]

i think the day tickets are resonably priced but the three day passes are overpriced. And charging 45 per person/night to camp is obscene.

we're staying in palm springs though. it's cheaper than the local area.

[Boourns]

Camping is $45 for all four nights, so $11 a day.

[Philthy]

Overpriced??? Fuck off.

So far there's what.....109 bands confirmed - so that's like $2.28 per band.

How man bands have you been to see for $2.28 before?

It's not overpriced at all. Motels will put their price up because they can - and people will pay over the top prices because they don't want to camp.

Coachella is SO reasonably priced. Stop being idiots.

[joanofarse]

Its not overpriced at all. Its a standard festival price, come over to oxygen or Electric Picnic and you will see overpriced! Have ye guys not seen the line up?? And there is more to come.

If Rage decided to play a gig in Dublin, id pay up to €600 to see them, thats what it is costing me to fly from Dub to see them in LA, inc the ticket!

[apachedino]

Yes, a little, but it will be worth it. Don't stay in a hotel that's what will eat your money up. It is way more fun to camp onsite, it really completes the experience. It's not really $3 a band, because there is no possible way to see them all. But you have many quality choices and it will only end up being like $10 a band, not bad. Water on the other hand is a rip. There is absolutely no reason not to let a factory sealed bottle in other than greed.

[eudaemonia]

No, it isn't. The surrounding hotels are though (we can't all rough it and camp).

[Nosilla909]

For a 3 day event such as this, and considering the 3 headliners, the event is not overpriced. The dinosaurs such as the Stones and Aerosmith/Motley Crue were charging just as much just to see them !

[Courtney]

Is it overpriced? No.

Did you start this thread for the sole purpose of trying to get more traffic on your little website? Probably.

[sithlord]

Costly, yes, but not overpriced.

[fatbastard]

Is Coachella overpriced? Here is a comparison of Coachella versus you making your own (assumming you live in LA).

Coachella
Tickets $252.00
Service Fee $30.00
Total Cost $282.00
Hotel/3 Nights $540.00
$822.00
# of bands you could see(realistically) in 3 days 21
Cost per day $274.00
Cost per performance $39.14

Make you own Coachella
Keane-Wiltern(headliner) $38.50
Parking next door $12.00
Of Montreal-El Rey $15.00
Parking (free on the street) $8.00
The Roots-House of Blues $35.00
Parking $10.00
Brazilian Girls-Glass House $17.00
Parking $12.00
Gomez/Ben Kweller $27.50
Common-House of Blues $35.00
Parking $10.00
Parking next door $12.00
Ozomatli-Canyon Club $19.50
2 drink minimum $14.00
Cost for 7 performances on 7 different days $265.50
Cost per performance $37.93

You could save $1.21 a performance by driving around LA and Orange county to do it BY YOURSELF. Coachella is a deal.

[ratmfan105]

maybe but i think that 85 bucks for a rage reunion concert in almost 7 years is a penny on the ground max i would pay for rage ticket 1000 dollars for this show im a hardcore rage fan

[airguitarvet]

sucks to be poor.

[crazzz2007]

not overpriced

[tessalasset]

There is absolutely no reason not to let a factory sealed bottle in other than greed.

Sometimes, Goldenvoice doesn't get to make all the rules.

[suprefan]

No, it isn't. The surrounding hotels are though (we can't all rough it and camp).

Just because there isnt an outlet to plug in your haridryer, dont consider it "roughing it".

[Mystagogue]

Sometimes, Goldenvoice doesn't get to make all the rules.

I keep hearing that from a few different people. Any actual confirmation that the water thing isn't a Goldenvoice rule?

[tessalasset]

Also, you can buy one bottle of water and keep filling it up at the water fountains. Altho that is more of an inconvenience than repeatedly buying $2 bottles.

[eudaemonia]

I keep hearing that from a few different people. Any actual confirmation that the water thing isn't a Goldenvoice rule?

Actually, the more I hear about it the more it makes sense. I don't think of any of the concerts I've attended the concert promoter had any control of the concession stands. They just rent the venue for stage and audience space (in addition to the other things of that job).

[eudaemonia]

Just because there isnt an outlet to plug in your haridryer, dont consider it "roughing it".

No, I need my four walls. I'm paranoid like that.

[Swiss Misstery]

I really dont feel that the tickets are that overpriced. For what you get for the cost I feel it is reasonable. Not saying that $250 is cheap but I treat this as my yearly vacation. Any of my money that doesnt get spent on school gets saved for coachella.

[itsalltoomuch]

i just made a list of the bands i wanted to see and put the amount of money i would spend to see them, if that amount equals 250 then it is very much so worth it! bjork = 75$ and so on!

[AmeliaBedelia]

Overpriced??? Fuck off.

So far there's what.....109 bands confirmed - so that's like $2.28 per band.

How man bands have you been to see for $2.28 before?

It's not overpriced at all. Motels will put their price up because they can - and people will pay over the top prices because they don't want to camp.

Coachella is SO reasonably priced. Stop being idiots.

...just for the record, there's no way any one person could see every single band. that's not what the question was.

[Carlo Von Sexron]

Sorry, but I just don't understand how people can say Coachella tickets are overpriced. $250 for three days of amazing bands? Just the three headlining acts alone would cost you around $200 each. Does Goldenvoice bring in a lot of money? Yeah, of course. That's the point of a business venture. I'd even say $300 for a three-day pass would be a good deal. And if you've never been before, I whole-heartedly assure you it's worth it.

As for the hotels prices, that has nothing to do wth Goldenvoice (which I would imagine everyone is smart enough to figure out). Every hotel in the world has higher prices during peak times. Coachella takes place on the weekend in a resort town (Palm Springs) in southern California and brings in about 50,000+ people for the weekend. It's simple supply and demand. We're lucky the hotel prices aren't higher than they are. It actually wasn't until last year that the hotels seemed to catch on and really jack the prices up accordingly. There's still plenty of good deals, though. You just need to book early...as in about 6 months early. We slacked this year and didn't book until this week. The two previous years we booked in October, a half year in advance.

[ckgurl]

i dont think the festival is overpriced (glastonbury in UK costs about the same - however it IS the best festival in the world hahahah) - sorry I'm biased heheh. I may not think so after my first coachella :S

BUT.. i think the convenience charges that ticketmaster are freaking thrifting us of every penny we have! 30bucks for them to PRINT our ticketS?? please

[ckgurl]

and don't say the 30bucks helps them run the site because the promoters pay them a fee to sell those tickets and advertisers pay loads to keep that site running!

[I_am_138]

Coachella is not overpriced. Compare it to other festivals and you'll be shocked.
as others have pointed out, the $45 for camping is for FOUR days not each day, idiots.
For the festival itself...let's see you would be paying at least $60 per person to see Rage anywhere else, same with RHCP and Bjork. You get tons of bands, a great atmosphere and reasonably priced food and drinks. $2 per bottle of water is cheaper than what you will be paying on the airplane. Most restraunts charge at least $3 per bottle and McDonalds charges $1.50. The food is good and you can get a meal for under $8 easily. I don't eat much, but spend $25 max on food for the three days.
Most bands on the lineup charge over $25 just to see them at some shitty club with $9 beers.


Oh and I don't even like the headliners and it's still worth it. You go for the atmosphere and the great music. You do realize that your "beloved" Rage(fucking suck) get paid $1.5 million per person just to perform.

[hottotrot]

you forgot to include the cost of gas in that case

[york707]

It's not overpriced, because people are paying what they charge. On the other hand, ACL (a three day festival) charges $100. Lolla is in the $150 range (3 days, also).

The one thing I have to say is that the presale, doesn't really give THAT big of a discount. You can buy 3-day passes for ACL for $35 in presale (granted, theey limit those to about 1000 tickets)...