Having attended the Coachella music and arts festival in California for the last 2 years in a row, I’d like to consider myself something of a veteran (I do make the trip over from the UK after all). Last Friday I was hoping to make it 3 years in a row when tickets for the 2012 festival went on sale. Alas, after 3 hours of online queuing, I came away empty handed and none too pleased.

Not getting a ticket (the legit way) is annoying, but what I’d like to talk about was the bizarre decision Coachella’s organisers, Goldenvoice, made to hold the event over 2 separate weekends this year – the same line up, the same arts and other attractions, but different people. The decision was made to hold the festival twice, over back to back weekends, with all of the headliners and other acts booked to play 2 weekends, in the exact same order.

Not exactly a ‘green’ move is it.

In credit to the organisers, this year’s line up is impressive.

They’ve pulled a rabbit out of the hat by getting Dr. Dre and Snoop together, Radiohead are one of the biggest bands on the planet, and French electro heads Justice are gearing up for a hotly anticipated first major festival set in years. Add that to a slew of up and comers that have the industry buzzing and you can understand why Coachella’s appeal has steadily grown overseas. But two weekends though…why? It was a surprising move for a festival with such people friendly, hippie roots.

The organisers say that ‘they want everybody to be able to attend’ (everyone accept me apparently smh), and that repeating the festival for a further weekend would give more people that opportunity.

Now, I cant argue with that – more people ARE going to be able to attend, and perhaps this was done to meet the festival’s growing popularity (tickets for this year sold out in 3 hours – a record for the festival), but judging by the feedback I’ve been receiving, more people doesn’t necessarily mean more happy people.

2 week 2 or not week 2?

I have groups of friends from both Los Angeles and New York who plan the month of April around their expedition to the desert. They got me involved back in 2010 (Jay-Z headlined, much to my delight) and I’ve been hooked since then. So upon the announcement that there would be two weekends to choose from – cries from my various groups of friends were ‘Week 1 or week 2??”

In total I’m talking of a group of between 20-30 people, who were now all having to co-ordinate the trip perfectly like so: Can everyone book the same weekend off work? Are people even free on the same weekend? How does this affect our flights/transportation? Simple things maybe, but getting your group of friends on the same page is difficult enough, and this is before you’ve even secured a ticket.

As predicted, the worst case scenario came true. A number of my friends got tickets for Week 1, while others got tickets for Week 2 – this is after waiting on standby online on separate waiting screens for each weekend. It quickly became apparent that my friends were getting access to purchase tickets, but for different weekends. The selection policy didn’t seem to have anything to do with how fast their broadband was, but instead operated like a lottery.

It’s easy to say that my friends could have communicated better, but when tickets are selling out rapidly and you’re faced with a choice of going to the festival or not, communication quickly falters. It’s a shame they even had to be put in this position in the first place. Now they have just under 90 days til the festival starts. They now need to hit up Craigslist and Ebay to see if anybody wants to swap weekends with them, or worse, pay over the odds again just so they can have a good time with their friends.

It’s an unnecessary headache for regular attendees of the festival – the fan loses out to corporate doing once again. At least if it was held over just one weekend groups of people would have one single date to organise themselves and make arrangements for. A simple thing but it can honestly make life a lot easier for some people.

The immediate thing the 2 weekend story said to me was: Goldenvoice stand to make A LOT more money than they normally would. Sure the artists’ booking fees, staff and other set up costs would remain…but you can bet that they’re still going to make a decent profit when it’s all over.

And for a festival who has prided itself on reducing it’s carbon footprint over the years, holding the same energy exhaustive festival twice in a row kind of unravels all of that hard work, no matter how you dress it up.

What about the other logistics though…the big debate between me and my friends was; are the headliners going to give a better show the first week, or the next? Will they give an epic opening show, or will it be a tired effort in the second week? It may sound silly, but these are serious concerns for big music fans – hence everyone I know preferred the first weekend (which sold out first naturally). And what if an artist or band pulls out for some reason? Ok any festival is open to that happening, but what if an artists fills their obligation the first week then decides they can’t/won’t/don’t want to stick around for another week – seriously, these are all things we consider.

It remains to be seen whether this move turns out to be a real success for Goldenvoice and the Coachella legacy. They may well turn over some positive bank numbers, but the over-riding feeling I’ve witnessed from my friends, the internet and online forums is that it’s an unnecessary change that actually takes away from the festival’s unique feel. Less is more sometimes.

As it currently stands I still don’t have a ticket, and if I do decide to try and get one somehow, I have to choose which of my American friends I’d rather spend 3 days in the desert with (I hope they’re not reading this).

Whatever happens, I hope Goldenvoice acknowledge the fans thoughts and opinions when it comes to 2013. In the two years that I’ve attended, I’ve never noticed any kind of bad feedback regarding the ticket purchasing scheme or any other aspect of the festival.

That has all changed this year. There’s definitely something to consider.

Jason