Prince and Coachella: The Saga
Who would have thought the word saga would be used to describe a festival rumor? But the 
speculation as to whether or whether not Prince will be appearing at this year’s Coachella Music Festival has essentially become a story of epic proportions.
It has been three days since Kevin Bronson of The Los Angeles Times published the now infamous story reporting that Prince would be added to Coachella’s 2008 lineup in the coming days. However, 72 hours later, we still find ourselves knowing as much as we did before, unsure if Minnesota’s most popular purple, pop legend will actuallly be gracing Indio, California at the end of April, or whether the whole thing is just baseless speculation…
Why, you may ask? Well, it’s one of those situations in which both sides are sticking to their guns, unwilling to change their story. Shortly after Bronson published the story, Coachella promoter AEG Live/Goldenvoice responded to the article saying there is no commitment from Prince to play the fesitival. While Bronson edited his article to reflect this denial, he included the follow the sentence at the very end: “Stay tuned…. this is the Purple One we’re talking about, so anything could happen.”
And this is where we now stand, unsure who is telling the truth. While at this point in time it might be smartest to go with the word of the promoter over the reporter, Bronson’s last sentence does raise a pretty good point. We ARE talking about Prince here. The same musician who has done everything from suing his own fans to playing halftime at the Superbowl. He is easily on of the most unpredictiable persons alive, and perhaps in the end, because of this, both sides may indeed be accurate in their statements.
In other words, there are probably four scenarios involving what is currently going on with Prince and Coachella:
- Prince has been booked to play, but Goldenvoice wants to do the annoucement of their own terms.
- Prince has agreed to play, but is holding out for more money.
- The offer is still on the table, but Prince is undecided.
- Prince has declined the offer and will not be playing at Coachella
All four scenarios seem possible and because nothing is officially known, anyone of them could be true. However, if either of the first true turn out to be true, then both Bronson and Goldenvoice are accurate in their statements. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking, but then again, Bronson was right on the My Morning Jacket/Rilo Kiley and Roger Waters. I doubt the the man gets any benefit in making something up as big as this…
We shall see…
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its like seeing your presents under the tree, and not knowing if you will ever even get a chance to open them.
Ahhh, the suspense is killing me! Please keep following the story, OK? There really aren’t any other websites as good at following these festival happenings as yours, and I don’t want to have to go fishing around the net for more information.
Mar 25th, 2008 at 9:38 am
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Apr 9th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
[...] couple of weeks ago, we ran the story that Prince would be playing Coachella, but several reports conflicted, adding doubts of a [...]