The downturn in the economy helped preserve California’s most celebrated music festival. Tollett, along with Coachella promoter Goldenvoice, just inked a pact with Haagen that gives the festival its first long-term lease on the property, which this past weekend brought a record 75,000 fans each over three days to see 128 acts, led by the crystalline space rock of Muse and the Cristal flow of rap star Jay-Z.
The owner of the grounds will be committing $1.0 million to improvements to the grounds that will help festival-goers. Plus, they keep getting good ideas from Festival 8 that will hopefully allow Phish to bring their ninth festival back to Indio for Halloween (fingers crossed)…
The most visually striking addition to this year’s Coachella was a 150-foot-tall Ferris wheel that towered over the festival grounds and, with its lights, flashed and flared into the night. The wheel was a holdover from October’s Phish Festival 8, which also took place at the Empire Polo Club. Haagen said those sorts of one-offs would be part of the venue’s business plan moving forward.
