Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Mini-festival, Sept. 2-4, 2000
Second festival, April 2001
Empire Polo Club, Indio
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Second Coachella festival moved to April
But a mini¹ event is added for Labor Day weekend
By Bruce Fessier
The Desert Sun
June 28th, 2000
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It¹s a good news/bad news thing.
The second annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is being pushed
back again, from November to April. But the promoter is adding a second
³mini-Coachella² over Labor Day weekend.
No dates or acts have been set for either event, but Paul Tollett, co-owner
of Goldenvoice, which brought 80 critically acclaimed rock and hip-hop
groups to the Empire Polo Club in October, said similarly ³intelligent²
bands will be brought to the Empire Polo Club for both shows.
Some 50,000 people watched acts such as Beck, Rage Against the Machine and
Moby perform last Oct. 9-10 despite stifling heat. A capacity crowd would
have been 70,000, or 35,000 each day, and the Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice
said it didn¹t make money on the festival. It had planned to hold this
year¹s event in November to take advantage of cooler weather.
Attraction: Tollett said the company is moving it to April to be able to
book the kind of talent it wants.
³There¹s a lot of big festivals right now just in Southern California,² he
said, ³and, in terms of traffic, to put on that big of a show we need to be
the only one during the time period. Beastie Boys and Rage Against the
Machine are playing in September. There was just the Weenie Roast and
there¹s Metallica and the Smokeout in San Bernardino. There are so many
shows.²
Vibe¹: The September ³mini-festival² will feature 20 to 30 acts in one day,
said Tollett, and have a similar ³vibe² as Coachella, a European-styled
festival with several acts playing at once over the expansive, green polo
fields.
The music will start later in the day than it did at the Coachella, probably
around twilight. Acts are expected to be booked a month before the show.
They¹ll likely be in contrast to the heavy metal bands playing in San
Bernardino Sept. 2 at Ozzie Osbourne¹s Ozzfest.
Tollett doesn¹t expect the year-and-a-half between events to impact the
two-day festival in April. He¹s also been assured by Empire Polo Club
officials that the festival won¹t conflict with its polo schedule. Polo
events continued through April this year at nearby Eldorado Polo Club.
Empire officials weren¹t available for comment, but club owner Alex Haagen
III endorsed the festival at a May Indio City Council session. City
officials said Indio received $63,000 in bed tax in October 1999 compared
with $42,000 in October 1998.
Bruce Fessier is the people/entertainment editor for The Desert Sun. He can
be reached at (760) 778-4622.