Half a continent away from Bonnaroo’s rural Tennessee setting, the town
of Indio, California is nestled in a valley break from the Colorado stretch of
the Sonoran desert. Indio grew as a Western frontier town, linked to the
railways’ move toward the coast. This southern California valley – Coachella
– stretches from the San Bernardino Mountains down to the Salton Sea,
and is home to desert resorts like Palm Springs. It was once famous for
growing dates, and while dates are still grown there, the Coachella Valley
is now synonymous with one of the largest music festivals in the United
States.

This fame stems from 1993, when Pearl Jam left Los Angeles in the heat of a
dispute with ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster. They picked the Empire Polo
Club in Indio as their new concert venue. Having thus proved its ability to
host large-scale concerts, the club grew to become the site of the highestgrossing music festivals in the United States. The Coachella Valley Music
and Arts Festival, a hip, mammoth two-weekend pop-rock music festival,
is the most famous, but it’s not the only show in town. Following hot on
its heels every spring comes Stagecoach, Coachella’s country cousin. If
that weren’t enough, the organizers behind Coachella and Stagecoach are
debuting Desert Trip this year, a new double-weekend festival slated for
October. Desert Trip (which some have dubbed “Oldchella” for targeting
the baby boomer market) is making headlines for its star-studded classic
rock lineup – counting the Rolling Stones, the Who, Bob Dylan, Neil Young
and Paul McCartney among its big names – and for selling out all of its
70,000 tickets in three hours flat.
The festivals are all big-budget, glamorous events that have on-and-off
allowe