Coachella attendance figures released
Despite the late addition of Prince and anticipation leading up to reunion performances by Portishead and The Verve, this year’s recent edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, whether a result of the increasing over saturation of the market and/or a reflection of the state of the economy, failed to match last year’s attendance numbers.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival drew 30,000 fewer people than in 2007, its promoter reported Friday…
Coachella, headlined by Jack Johnson, Prince and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, drew 150,000 people — well below the record set in 2007…
Prince apparently bumped the Coachella attendance. Unofficial reports during the festival indicated the Saturday lineup he headlined drew 60,000 people.
Just think of what the attendance figures would have been if Prince was never added…
Ironically, Goldenvoice’s other recent extravaganza, the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which was headlined by The Eagles and Rascall Flats, more than doubled last year’s attendance. So who really knows whats going on…
One person not affected by all this? Shia LaBeouf.
We go to Coachella every year - it’s a big deal for us. We fly out from NYC and spend a week in Palm Springs. It’s been the high point of our year for many years now. Personally, I thought this year was fantastic - great mix of music, not a lot of pissed off 19 year olds, perfect weather, etc. We don’t care who the headliners are but they do add a certain excitement early on. They get that early ticket buying rush going. I hope that Coachella stays just the way it is (hell, I bitched about going to three days).
Oh…skip the “type” of music and without a doubt, Roger Waters put on one hell of a show that many people have paid through the nose to see in shitty venues like Jones Beach, PNC or even MSG (the most overrated arena ever). Or Shoreline near SF? Ultimate shitsville. Roger killed it in the desert and I’ll take that one to the grave.
BTW - great website/blog. I enjoy checking in everyday and the workup to the festival season was top notch. Kudos.
What people need to realize is that the late addition of Prince could only do so much for attendance. Mainly it could only attract more people from the LA/SF/Vegas areas. When he was announced, I believe it was about one month (perhaps slightly less) from the actual show. Plane tickets were so expensive at that point that nobody was going to hop on a plane in Wyoming for the event at that point. Hopefully, however, this does not discourage GV from having big headliners next year. BTW, I would contend that last year’s attendance was so high only because RATM had Coachella as their only tour date for most of the Spring. That made all the little Rageheads run out and buy tickets to get to SoCal. If Cochella would have been announced as just another date on a full US Rage tour, attendance would not have been nearly as high (like Roger Waters this year).
… proof*
Proff that no matter what the blog community says about lineups, Headliners are very important when it comes to ticket sales.
Jul 15th, 2008 at 9:59 am
[...] many different factors, ranging from oversaturation to the status of economy. Some festivals, like last April’s Coachella, have seen low turnouts in attendance, while didn’t even want to take the gamble. (See: [...]