From Coachella Valley to the Vegas Valley
By: Dylan Domingo
As the weather gets warmer, the music gets louder. Music fans everywhere are gearing up for an exciting summer music circuit, packed with high profile tours and high- attendance festivals. Though, as popular artists set their sights for places like the Coachella Valley, Las Vegas is preparing to be a popular stop on the way.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day event held in Indio, California, annually each April. It is known as one of the major U.S. music festivals, last year drawing up to 75,000 people each day, a record high in attendance for the festival according to the LA Times.
But with the combination of high ticket prices and far distances to travel, attending Cochella is not an option for many teenagers. The event also starts on a Friday and so students would be have to miss at least one day of school in order to attend.
“The cost of tickets for the festival is, of course, the number one reason why I can’t attend,” sophomore Ashley Peterson said. “Also, I doubt my mom would have let me go.”
Peterson continued in saying that the prices are slightly more reasonable when you consider the circumstances of a festival like Coachella, which combines so many musical acts into one event. “The price of tickets is a little
outrageous, but at the same time, I think it’s quite worth it for the number of bands you get to see perform, so I can understand why they price them so highly,” Peterson said. Senior Daniel Coffey was planning on attending the festival, but the price of tickets and other factors caused him to abandon his plans to go to Coachella.
“I do think the prices for Coachella tickets are absurdly high, but ultimately people willing to pay those prices are going to get a bang for their buck,” Coffey said. “It’s unfortunate that the price of tickets needs to be so high, but with an impressive venue and big-named artists like Kanye West and The Strokes playing, I cannot say I’m surprised the tickets were selling so quickly and for so much.”
However, there is another chance for local music fans to see many of the artists playing at festivals like Coachella, because the festival tends to attract many of these bands to a valley closer to home.
According to Peterson, Las Vegas gets certain concerts, including not as well known bands, that the city would not normally get to come around festival time due to the proximity of the Coachella Fest.
“Bands that play at Coachella choose to come through Vegas and play shows here because they see it as another opportunity to perform for fans who may not always get to see them live,” Peterson said.
The proximity of the concerts does not mean that it is easier to attend the concerts. If he had enough money, Coffey says he would attend several concerts in town to see the acts he’s missing out on from the Coachella festival.
“I would need money, which means I would need a job, and I don’t really have the time or effort to acquire either,” Coffey said. “Festivals like Coachella are so great because it’s basically every artist you might want to see this year in three days.”
