5/17/2012 The Day Coachella Died.

[Hedonism]

This thread is in commemoration of the great music festival that was once Coachella.

Coachella was once a festival where a person could go and listen to music. Great music. Music that spanned generations and performances that were simply timeless. The lineup was diverse, the accommodations were minimal, but the experience was unforgettable. Hard to believe how far we have come...

Now, here we are. Thursday, May 17 2012. A day that will live in infamy for music lovers. What was once a music festival has transformed into a trendy LA rave. Gone are the days where one could go to discover new music. Coachella 2012's sahara lineup confirms what we have all feared, the era of good music has ended. Get ready to hear more of Levels, Feel So Close, and David Guetta in 2013. I heard all the sahara dj's are going to play a sick remix of Calling. Should be fun. The lineup has not even come out but it almost does not matter what is on it. Expect mainstream garbage. Expect the same lineup as EDC.

Coachella has successfully transformed into a trendy, mainsteam music festival. Have fun, ravers.

[ods..]

Here's the pro-tip to have a great Coachella: don't go in the Sahara tent now.

[lt.roast.a.botch]

This thread is in commemoration of the great music festival that was once Coachella.

Coachella was once a festival where a person could go and listen to music. Great music. Music that spanned generations and performances that were simply timeless. The lineup was diverse, the accommodations were minimal, but the experience was unforgettable. Hard to believe how far we have come...

Now, here we are. Thursday, May 17 2012. A day that will live in infamy for music lovers. What was once a music festival has transformed into a trendy LA rave. Gone are the days where one could go to discover new music. Coachella 2012's sahara lineup confirms what we have all feared, the era of good music has ended. Get ready to hear more of Levels, Feel So Close, and David Guetta in 2013. I heard all the sahara dj's are going to play a sick remix of Calling. Should be fun. The lineup has not even come out but it almost does not matter what is on it. Expect mainstream garbage. Expect the same lineup as EDC.

Coachella has successfully transformed into a trendy, mainsteam music festival. Have fun, ravers.

5/17/12 the day hedonism realized he fucked up and missed out on tickets

[FEELS]

Sounds like you only listen to "underground" electronic music..

[Boskodahmer]

Are you sure you are not getting older? I have been going for 7 years now and while yes I agree that Sahara has gone downhill, I find myself gravitating towards the other tents more which is nice. I cannot believe you are going to be pissed off because a lot people enjoy electronic music. How can you be mad at someone who is having a good time with their friends and screaming the lyrics to a song. Yes it may be a bro who you despise, but how dare you feel superior to him for liking "better" music than him/her. Coachella is constantly evolving and things change, if Coachella stayed the way it started it would be dead. You sound like an asshole, and you are already assuming that they are booking electronic acts that are terrible. How do you know they are not planning to reunite Talking Heads (yes I know how ridiculous this is) or get Bowie. If they do that, will Coachella be "cool" for you? I hate all this bitching today from everybody, Coachella is a beautiful place and a wonderful experience, the music is a bonus. Just because your mother did not hug you enough as a child does not mean you need to take it out on music festival that really has not done anything wrong to you.

Also what ods... said, stay away from Sahara if you do not want to go there, there is a reason they put it in the corner.

[general_rowdy]

^

Sahara was fucking garbage this year!

[gaypalmsprings]

This thread is in commemoration of the great music festival that was once Coachella.

Coachella was once a festival where a person could go and listen to music. Great music. Music that spanned generations and performances that were simply timeless. The lineup was diverse, the accommodations were minimal, but the experience was unforgettable. Hard to believe how far we have come...

Now, here we are. Thursday, May 17 2012. A day that will live in infamy for music lovers. What was once a music festival has transformed into a trendy LA rave. Gone are the days where one could go to discover new music. Coachella 2012's sahara lineup confirms what we have all feared, the era of good music has ended. Get ready to hear more of Levels, Feel So Close, and David Guetta in 2013. I heard all the sahara dj's are going to play a sick remix of Calling. Should be fun. The lineup has not even come out but it almost does not matter what is on it. Expect mainstream garbage. Expect the same lineup as EDC.

Coachella has successfully transformed into a trendy, mainsteam music festival. Have fun, ravers.

Summarized into one sentence: "I didn't get a thicket."

[travelfan]

How can you be mad at someone who is having a good time with their friends and screaming the lyrics to a song. Yes it may be a bro who you despise, but how dare you feel superior to him for liking "better" music than him/her.

This is exactly what I don't understand, especially at a festival where there are five options (plus Do Lab and Heineken Dome) at any given time. You don't have to see the act in question, and so just relax and accept that there are a ton of people who enjoy it. "Oh, look at that group of people, they are having the weekend of their lives at THAT set? I pity them, blah blah blah". A) who gives a shit which band it is as long as people are enjoying themselves at Coachella, and B) the man in charge seemed to think the band deserved a Coachella spot and belonged on the lineup, but I guess you know otherwise, right?

[GuyInTucson]

The Sahara hasn't been excellent overall in years. It certainly hasn't since I started going back. With that being said, 2012 was the first year it was atrocious. 2010 Sahara had Plastikman, Orbital and 2manyDJs; 2011 had Sasha, Shpongle, Sven Väth and The Twelves. I still hold out hope 2013 will have a much better edm lineup and that includes the Sahara.

[tigermilkboy]

Shakes head and sighs (sigh)

[skavenbrew]

Yawn

[Neighborhood Creep]

Because there isn't 6 other stages

[paulb]

He makes a lot of valid points. Im going to miss the days of 2008. Insane acts like Portishead, Kraftwerk, Prince, Roger Waters, to a very empty feeling polo fields, being able to walk from the Sahara to Main stage in half the time it does now, no clusterfucks, just awesome music goers. Now its a struggle to get in to any tent or beer garden.

[GuyInTucson]

He makes a lot of valid points. Im going to miss the days of 2008. Insane acts like Portishead, Kraftwerk, Prince, Roger Waters, to a very empty feeling polo fields, being able to walk from the Sahara to Main stage in half the time it does now, no clusterfucks, just awesome music goers. Now its a struggle to get in to any tent or beer garden.

I don't think the days of those types of lineups are over. The size of the crowd doesn't bother me either other than 2010.

[paulb]

I don't think the days of those types of lineups are over. The size of the crowd doesn't bother me either other than 2010.

I think lineups aren't the problem, its the size of crowd that are now attending blindly, and using Coachella as a place to strictly party and be seen. For me it was about discovering great music I would have otherwise potentially never seen.

[tigermilkboy]

I think lineups aren't the problem, its the size of crowd that are now attending blindly, and using Coachella as a place to strictly party and be seen. For me it was about discovering great music I would have otherwise potentially never seen.

If someone was saying to you in 2008, that 'Coachella was better in 2003', what would you have said? Stop looking back? I think you are in danger of believing everything was better back then. Things seldom stay the same, the experience changes. Live in the moment and embrace the changes, otherwise you will find yourself becoming the crusty old guy at festivals who complains about 'selling out, the price of water, new acts etc'.

[Hawkings]

Summarized into one sentence: "I didn't get a thicket."

^this

when i saw the title of the thread, I thought for sure it was going to be, the festival is somehow dead because it sold out pre-sale. Not a thread about how it's too crowded and the EDM sucks. Why the 5/17/12 date if those problems plagued last year? All that said, having smaller crowds definately makes it a better experience

[paulb]

If someone was saying to you in 2008, that 'Coachella was better in 2003', what would you have said? Stop looking back? I think you are in danger of believing everything was better back then. Things seldom stay the same, the experience changes. Live in the moment and embrace the changes, otherwise you will find yourself becoming the crusty old guy at festivals who complains about 'selling out, the price of water, new acts etc'.

well said, i agree with everything you said. The size of the crowd is my main issue with Coachella, I dont think its gone downhill at all, just the audience its attracted through some questionable bookings.

[microcuts]

The only tent that truly felt sickeningly packed (and with bros) nearly the entire weekend was the Sahara. I was able to get up on the rail for about a half dozen acts in the Gobi/Mojave and also had speedy entry/service in the Heineken Dome both of the times I checked it out. This was Weekend 2, so perhaps the intense heat/type of attendance affected this in some way.

It seems like the most ridiculous lines I saw were for Water Refill stations (had to have been a 30+ minute wait), when one could just walk up to nearly any vendor and immediately get an ice cold bottle of water for $2.

[xuclarockerx]

Not enough flaming in this thread

[Somewhat Damaged]

This thread is in commemoration of the great music festival that was once Coachella.

Coachella was once a festival where a person could go and listen to music. Great music. Music that spanned generations and performances that were simply timeless. The lineup was diverse, the accommodations were minimal, but the experience was unforgettable. Hard to believe how far we have come...

Now, here we are. Thursday, May 17 2012. A day that will live in infamy for music lovers. What was once a music festival has transformed into a trendy LA rave. Gone are the days where one could go to discover new music. Coachella 2012's sahara lineup confirms what we have all feared, the era of good music has ended. Get ready to hear more of Levels, Feel So Close, and David Guetta in 2013. I heard all the sahara dj's are going to play a sick remix of Calling. Should be fun. The lineup has not even come out but it almost does not matter what is on it. Expect mainstream garbage. Expect the same lineup as EDC.

Coachella has successfully transformed into a trendy, mainsteam music festival. Have fun, ravers.

So now that Coachella's basically sold out in a couple hours, one won't be able to go and listen to music -- nay, great music -- at Coachella anymore? The lineup isn't going to be diverse? They're only going to book Avicii, David Guetta, Skrillex, and the like, for every hour of every stage for all three days of the festival? All of that can be surmised by the majority of the tickets having been purchased already?

Wow. You're like Nostradamus. Be sure to remember this post, guys, so that when the lineup is released in January and Hedonism's prophecy is proven true, we can all bow at his prescient feet.

[PlayaDelWes]

I'm pretty sure the official death will be December 21, 2012.

[SUSHIXXXXX]

I've been going since 2004 and I still discover lots of new music every year. It's probably because I don't make any real effort to discover new music until the lineup gets announced. This year, I discovered the following acts based on the lineup being released: Miike Snow, Frank Ocean, Grouplove, Givers, Atari Teenage Riot, Wild Flag, Childish Gambino, Big Pink, Real Estate. I haven't set foot in the Sahara since Daft Punk's 2006 set so maybe that's where I went right.

[ialvarado2]

I never go into the Sahara, that place is nasty.

[Ardentbiscuit]

Everyone is so overly dramatic.

[captncrzy]

No surprise. LA is the drama queen capital of the universe.

[Miroir Noir]

Not enough flaming in this thread

There are so many of these threads right now that even the most dedicated flamers can't keep up.

[Larry Farnsworth]

I will be attending Coachella in 2013, for the first time ever. I bought my first-ever Coachella tickets on 5/17/2012.

I killed Coachella.

I Am Become Death.

[GuyInTucson]

well said, i agree with everything you said. The size of the crowd is my main issue with Coachella, I dont think its gone downhill at all, just the audience its attracted through some questionable bookings.

But the expanded grounds helped alleviate the congestion and foot traffic, no? To me, the last two years were fine. The crowd was a minimal issue. In 2010, yeah it was unbearably bad, but they seemed to have fixed those issues.

I really haven't felt like it was crowded at all the past two years.

[Sushov23]

If someone was saying to you in 2008, that 'Coachella was better in 2003', what would you have said? Stop looking back? I think you are in danger of believing everything was better back then. Things seldom stay the same, the experience changes. Live in the moment and embrace the changes, otherwise you will find yourself becoming the crusty old guy at festivals who complains about 'selling out, the price of water, new acts etc'.

Actually I have several friends from here(Palm Springs) who have been going since 02, and they tell me that the experience was very similar from 02-08.The first year they noticed a shift was 09(surprise surprise it was when EDM started blowing up, and the sahara started turning to shit).