Coachella Arts & Music Festival is fast-approaching and it’s going to be a really solid year for the festival, with Phish to thank for their Festival 8 management and approach. It turns out the promoters were learning quite a bit last Halloween and they’re bringing some of that to this year’s Coachella…
Conspicuously absent [from Coachella’s lineup] is a single jam band (to use the broad stylistic tag given to improvisation-happy rock groups that follow the freewheeling musical template created in the late 1960s by the now dormant Grateful Dead). But it is Phish, the mightiest active jam band of all, who inspired some intriguing changes at Coachella after the band performed multiple sets at the Empire Polo Club over three consecutive days and nights last Halloween weekend.
The changes weren’t really noticed by me and my crew, because only one of us had been to Coachella before arriving in Indio for the Phish festival. But it seems that the changes in place have already gotten Coachella close to sell-out…
For Festival 8 in Indio, Phish stipulated that no single-day tickets could be sold, only three-day festival packages. The band also had Goldenvoice implement an in-and-out policy that enabled Festival 8 attendees to come and go as they pleased, be it to the nearby campground or to area hotels. The result was an easygoing synergy that Tollett hopes to emulate next weekend.
I’m sure that isn’t the reason that the festival may sell-out, but I think it helps the idea that people can enjoy the festival in the way they want and that makes it a bit more appealing for those in attendance. Leaving the festival grounds means you’re going to miss some music and mayhem but in that area of the country a little air conditioning and a shower back at your rented condo can seem like a good idea in many cases.
If you’re going to the festival, get in touch and let us know! I’m calling a Jay-Z sit-in at the Grizzly Bear set; who wants in on those odds?
