Since its reportedly shaky start back in Oct. 1999, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, staged by concert promoter Goldenvoice, is now on solid financial ground. Tickets for this year’s first weekend of events, held April 12-14, not only sold out, they were gone within 20 minutes. Three-day passes for the second weekend, April 19-21, sold out as well, in little more than a day.
You might wonder why AEG-owned Goldenvoice doesn’t simply meet the demand by printing more tickets. The problem is that the host city specifies that no more than 99,000 people be on the Empire Polo Field grounds on any given day. Since more than a few people are needed to perform at, and run, the event, Goldenvoice caps sales of its weekend passes, good for three days, at 90,000.
This year, Goldenvoice sold all 90,000 available passes for each of the three-day weekend events (at $349-$799 a pop) and 45,000 more (with a $239 general admission price) for the Stagecoach country music festival held the following weekend. The total estimate of daily turnstile clicks for three weekends of music in the middle of nowhere in April 2013? Somewhere near the 675,000 mark.
If the daily attendance cap makes it unlikely for Coachella’s attendance trajectory to keep rising, anyone who has had to navigate through the massive crowd of revelers can attest that that might not be such a bad thing. Counterbalancing any hassles involving huge crowds, of course, is the long roster of interesting performers — and the lighting, video, lasers, artsy sculptures and other visuals accompanying the music.
The number of stages hasn’t expanded dramatically — surprisingly, there had been a Main Stage, Outdoor Theatre, Mojave Tent, Sahara Tent and Gobi Tent way back in 1999. (In 2013, a sixth performance area, the Yuma Stage, was added; there had been a sixth area, the Oasis Dome, in 2011 as well). But the complexity of managing each performance area has grown along with the roster of acts.
In 1999, a total of 37 groups performed, led by Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Tool, Morrissey and Rage Against the Machine. Fast forward to 2013, and 190 different acts performed.
The 2013 lineup skewed toward vintage acts, with a strong representation of U.K.-based bands and less overall emphasis on big-name DJs. EDM artists were well-represented in the Sahara tent but less prevalent on the other stages. Along with up-and-coming artists, there were plenty of acts that got their start before the first Coachella festival, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Wu-Tang Clan, Metric, Blur, the Stone Roses, R. Kelly, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, to name a few.
Along with the number of acts, the technology supporting the event has surged as well, with structures bearing heavy loads of audio, video and lighting gear put to the test of a sandstorm that whipped through the region at the close of the first weekend with 50 mph gusts.
The Coachella (Main) Stage
The main stage, a six-legged structure from Brown United nicknamed by some stagehands as “Optimus Brown,” was laden with an estimated 165,000 pounds of lighting, sound and video gear. But with a total rating of 500,000 lbs. of weight including lighting from PRG, sound gear from Rat Sound and LED video screens from Screenworks, the massive steel structure held solid.
The main stage crew included AEG Live’s production manager Neil Ryan, stage managers Mike Gee and Kyle Casey; PRG’s lighting crew, including production managers Bobby Allen and Steven Harris; and Screenworks’ Mychal Page, Angelo Bartolome and Billy Stewart, along with Steve White, Amy Segawa and Michael Duque.
Friday performers included Blur, the Stone Roses, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, Metric, Stars, Dâm-Funk, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Skinny Lister.
Saturday acts included Phoenix, The xx, The Postal Service, Hot Chip, Violent Femmes, Café Tacvba, Dropkick Murphys, Biffy Clyro, Theophilus London, Vintage Trouble and DJ Gabe Real.
The Sunday lineup included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Vampire Weekend, Social Distortion, the Lumineers, Gaslight Anthem, Airborne Toxic Event, Ghost B.C., Slipping Into Darkness and Mantastique.
Along with the challenges posed by weather and heavy loads of gear, the Brown United team proved up to the logistical challenges of disassembling, relocating and reassembling the stage roof system for the Stagecoach festival within a three-day span.
The lighting rig, provided by PRG, included that company’s Best Boy 4000, chosen in part for the versatility of its 8:1, 8 to 64 degrees zoom. Screenworks’ video support included two 17-by-32-foot 12mm Lighthouse DuoLED 12 LED mesh screens.
The Outdoor Theatre
While Brown, PRG and Rat Sound collaborated on the Coachella stage, technical production at the Outdoor Theatre, the second largest stage and grid at the event, was dominated by the efforts of a single company, Visions Lighting, which provided staging elements and lighting. Screenworks’ Mychal Page and other also provided an assist with video.
The Visions Lighting rig included grandMA2 consoles (2), Vari*Lite VL 300 Spots (24), VL 3500 Wash fixtures (24), Chauvet Nexus 4×4 fixtures (48), Elation Platinum Beam 5Rs (36) and Antari hazers and foggers, among other gear. Visions also provided the 65-by-45-foot roof structure with two 40-by-2-foot wings along with the 60-by-48-foot stage.
Todd Roberts, Visions’ owner and president, served as production manager of the Visions rig, with Brandon Dunning handling programming duties. The setup included two sliding traveler trusses allowed ladders with the Elation Platinum beams and columns of Chauvet 4x4s to move in and out across stage.
“If the band had a center backdrop, set piece, or LED screen, we could slide them off to the side,” Roberts reported, noting how that helped streamline and speed up changeovers.
Visions Lighting, which had supported the inaugural Coachella festival back in 1999, continued its tradition of adapting its efforts to serve performer needs in 2013 with an expanded loading dock area and “super truss arch” for a 7,200-lb. LED screen that accompanied the performance by Sigur Rós.
Along with the heavy-duty truss dedicated to the LED screens (the gear list included Daktronics’ 10mm SMD LED video displays), Visions Lighting relied upon an anemometer to measure wind speed. “We monitor the weather and wind constantly,” said Roberts. “It’s always a challenge out here, but we are prepared for it.”
Visions Lighting was also able to tweak its support based on the performer’s needs, expanding the 16-by-100-foot loading dock with an additional 20-by-32-foot dock section for the second weekend’s shows. Crew members from Visions supporting the event included Colin Johnson, Rafa Avila, Shaun Grout and Canin Campbell.
Friday performers at the Outdoor Theatre included Tegan and Sara, Jurassic 5, Band of Horses, Beach House, Local Natives, Of Monsters and Men, Divine Fits, Aesop Rock, Beardyman, The Neighborhood, White Arrows, Falcons and Mr. Carmack.
The Saturday lineup included Sigur Rós, Two Door Cinema Club, Descendents, Yeasayer, Portugal The Man, Puscifer, Ben Howard, Danny Brown, Action Bronson, Trash Talk, Reignwolfm Abjo and Insightful.
Sunday performers included Wu-Tang Clan, Pretty Lights, Tame Impala, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile & the Violators, Jeff the Brotherhood, Smith Westerns, Raider Klan, Wild Belle, Sango and Esta.
Sahara Tent
AG Lighting and Sound’s Andrew Gumper and Kyle Kegan built and lit the hangar-like, 20,000-capacity Sahara tent with support from production manager Wiley Daley, stage managers Harry Bellord and Sean Sandoval and others.
The Sahara Tent’s DJ/EDM artists, including Bassnectar, Knife Party, Moby, Paul Oakenfold and Eric Prydz, among others, were ensconced in a cube-like 3D configuration of Daktronics 10mm SMD LED SMD video panels, with two 8-by-19-foot surfaces coupled with one 6-by-19-foot screen. Nu-Salt Laser also provided laser looks.
NEP Screenworks’ video, LED and camera crew including Jeff Claire, Nick O’Bryen, Kevin Tokanaga, Karl Naval, Chaim Chavaria, Petrus Bratstrom, Marty Vidinha, Jeff Apregan, Billy Stewart and Juan Zaragoza.
Other featured DJ and EDM artists at the Sahara tent included Modestep, Wolfgang Gartner, Dog Blood, Nicky Romero, Tommy Trash, Thomas Gold, Dillon Francis, C2C, Sam XL Pure Filth Sound, DJ Geo, Dangerous Stranger and DJP (Fridays); Benny Benassi, Fedde Le Grand, Bingo Players, Kill the Noise, Baauer, Birdy Nam Nam, 3Ball MTY and Been Trill (Saturdays); and Excision/The Executioner, Hardwell, Paul Kalkbrenner, Mimosa, Dirtyphonics, Danny Avila, Mord Fustang and Adrian Lux (Sundays).
Mojave Tent
The Mojave tent setup included a 60-by-40-foot self-climbing truss grid from All Access Staging and a 60-by-40-foot stage from Accurate Staging. Highlights included sets by How to Destroy Angels, the new group featuring Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame, and a visual gag developed by SGPS and Tait called “noodles,” which involved motion-controlled hanging surgical tubes that served as a moving, 3D projection surface for animated video content.
The Mohave Tent featured other video elements as well, with the setup including a 16-by-27-foot Winvision 9.375mm SMD LED screen and two 12-by-16-foot Daktronics 10mm SMD LED screens, with support from Screenworks’ David Anderson, Jeff Apregan, Juan Zaragoza and Marty Vidinha.
All Access staging and rigging crew members included project manager Dave Agar along with Kevin Brown, Tristan Rossi and Graham Forrester, and the Accurate Staging crew included Jose and Johnny Cantu.
Felix Lighting provided the lighting rig for the Mojave Tent sets, featuring Grinderman, Infected Mushroom, Sparks, Palma Violets, Alt-J, Johnny Marr, Jake Bugg, Youth Lagoon, Lord Huron and You Me & Us on Fridays; New Order, Franz Ferdinand, Simian Mobile Disco, Grizzly Bear, Major Lazer, Bat for Lashes, 2 Chainz, Savages, Wild Nothing, Mona, The Wombats and Kids These Days on Saturdays; and Dead Can Dance, Roni Size & Dynamite MC, The Faint, La Roux, James Blake, Alex Clare, Jessie Ware, DIIV, Cloud Nothings, Robert DeLong and Deap Vally on Sundays.
Gobi and Yuma Tents
RK Diversified Entertainment (RKDE), All Access Staging and Screenworks teamed up in support of the acts performing at the Gobi Tent.
Incorporating All Access Staging’s Versa Stage system (60 by 40 feet) along with a 60-by-40-foot roof structure, RKDE’s lighting rig included eight Martin MAC 700 Profiles, 12 GLP Volkslichts, 12 Chauvet Q-Spots, eight Q-Washes and 14 Atomic 3000 strobes.
RKDE also stacked 30 of Chauvet’s COLORband PiX units in sets of five, and used pixel mapping to make the LEDs into one continuous image display. As with the Mojave tent, the Gobi Tent featured two 12-by-16-foot 10mm SMD LED screens from Daktronics.
Working with production manager Justin Colson and stage manager Corwin Swantek were RKDE lighting crew members Sean Coates, Joel Muir and Tim Fauds, with Screenworks’ Brandon Hoyle providing a video assist.
The Gobi stage lineup included Earl Sweatshirt, Foals, Purity Ring, Tnght, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Japandroids, James McCartney, Poliça, The Shouting Matches, Deathfix, IO Echo and Moustache on Fridays; Booka Shade, Janelle Monáe, Pusha T, Spiritualized, The Make-Up, El-P, The Selecter, Allen Stone, The Evens, Shovels & Rope, Guards and The Colouris on Saturdays; and Disclosure, Dub FX, Parov Stelar Band, OMD, Father John Misty, Rodriguez, Tanlines, Grimes, Thee Oh Sees, The Three O’Clock, Hanni El Khatib, Little Green Cars and Jimbo Jenkins on Sundays.
The new, sixth stage for 2013, the Yuma Tent, located in the terrace food area near the Heineken Dome, also featured a roster of DJs and other artists. The lineup included Luciano, Seth Troxler, DJ Harvey, Four Tet, Pete Tong, Raymond Roker, Mario Cotto, Sece on Fridays; Richie Hawtin, Cassy, Julio Bashmore, Jason Bentley, The 2 Bears, Zane Lowe , Huoratron, Lauren Lane on Saturdays; and Jamie Jones, Loco Dice, Maya Jane Coles, Joris Voorn, Jamie xx , Ladies Night, JDH & Dave P and Droog on Sundays.
—Frank Hammel contributed to this report
