Coachella massive success

By Joanne Santomauro

Students across campus have been raving about the Coachella music festival since tickets went on sale in late 2009. This year's three-day festival took place in Indio, California, from April 16 to 18 at the Empire Polo Field.

The line-up featured over 100 artists, including LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Jay-Z, Hot Chip and Corinne Bailey Rae.

Coachella, formally known as The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, has a colorful history. It was founded in 1999, and since then has featured a variety of a music including alternative rock, hip hop and electronica, along with a unique display of massive sculptural art.

The outdoor festival takes place in a desert setting, with daytime temperatures of over 100 degrees. In fact, during the festival's earlier years it took place in the summertime, but due to the intensity of the summer heat, in 2002 the festival was moved to the month of April.

Despite these efforts to avoid the heat, Indio delivered a scalding 90 degrees to this past weekend's visitors. The extreme weather however, didn't sway festival guests from having a good time.

Freshman Nick LaFarge began the trip to Coachella around 9 p.m. on Thursday night and arrived at 3 a.m. He and his friends waited in line to reach their camp sites for about four hours.

Luckily, LaFarge didn't run into much traffic on his way there. However other sources report that both pedestrians and automobiles faced "bumper-to-bumper" traffic on Friday. LaFarge recounted the grandeur of the venue itself:

"The Empire Polo Club is an actual polo club, where people bring their horses. So it was huge, almost overwhelmingly big, which made it tricky to meet up with people."

The stages were set up in a giant U-shape, with two main outdoor theaters and three tents on the sides for indoor staging.

LaFarge ranked the top three performances as Matt & Kim, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes and Yeasayer.

During the Edward Sharpe show, LaFarge managed to touch lead singer Alex Ebert while he was crowd surfing.

One of the most exciting performances of the festival was Jay-Z's. He surprised the crowd by bringing out his wife and superstar, Beyoncé for the song "Young Forever."

During the song, Beyoncé sang the chorus of "Forever Young." To LaFarge's excitement, he stood five feet away from Beyoncé and Jay-Z during The xx's set.

"If I leaned forward and wanted to get punched in the face, I could have touched (Beyoncé)," said LaFarge.

Other performances to praise were those of Passion Pit, Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend and The Gorillaz.

LaFarge stated, "Grizzly Bear was amazing as always. (They were) just so pretty to listen to."

The Gorillaz' performance -- the band's first since 2005 -- featured a screen behind the band, projecting mini-videos corresponding to their setlist.

For the electronica/techno lovers, one of the covered stages was dedicated to the performances of various DJs and house groups, including Benny Benassi and deadmau5.

The music wasn't the only highlight of the show. As tradition dictates, Coachella displayed an impressive collection of abstract sculptural art, including one sculpture that shot a 20 foot flame up a tube.

Additionally, there were various food vendors around the perimeter of the festival. Coachella even featured a full-size ferry wheel for side entertainment between performances.

Although an overall success, there were a few low points about the festival. Freshman Quin Adler said,

"They charged $12 for tiny refillable Nalgene bottles. I blew most of my money on food, the prices were ridiculous."

Also, due to the large size of the venue, it was difficult to find friends when separated. To add to the stress, so many people were using their cell phones that the cell phone tower jammed and no one could receive or make phone calls for a few hours.

Santa Clara students may not find it surprising that the network with the most failed situations was, in fact, AT&T. Users complained of text message delays up to six hours, as well as total loss of 3G coverage.

LaFarge said, "This was problematic. Some creepy guy was following my friend around and she couldn't find me."

For the most part though, festival organizer Goldenvoice took great efforts to ensure the security of the festival. Guests were not allowed to bring outside food and beverages, tents, blankets, weapons, drugs or even glass containers.

To the disappointment of many fans, several acts had to cancel due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted several weeks prior to Coachella.

The resulting ash-clouded airways, disabling half of Europe's scheduled commercial flights. Acts Gary Numan, Talvin Singh, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Bad Lieutenant, Delphic, the Cribs and Frightened Rabbit canceled their appearance at Coachella due to these transportation issues.

In light of the recent green movement, Coachella added a sustainability program to encourage guests to carpool. The program, called "Carpoolchella" dictated that participants who carpooled with four or more people could enter to win prizes including lifetime VIP tickets to Coachella, all access sidestage passes, VIP wristbands, photo passes and a golf cart ride to the front entrance.

General admission tickets to Coachella were $269 plus applicable service and convenience fees. For the fiscally-conscious customer, Goldenvoice offered layaway-ticket payment plans.

Coachella 2010 was an overall success, reeling in over fifty thousand guests. Fortunately, for those who missed this year's festival, it's never too early to start planning for Coachella 2011. Tickets will go on sale in late December.

Contact Joanne Santomauro at jsantomauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.

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