Coachella

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, often referred to simply as Coachella, is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary since 2001 of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip-hop and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures. Across the grounds, several stages continuously host live music.

The origins of the festival trace back to a 1993 concert that Pearl Jam performed at the Empire Polo Club while boycotting venues controlled by Ticketmaster. The show validated the site's viability for hosting large events, leading to the inaugural Coachella Festival being held over the course of two days in October 1999, three months after Woodstock '99. After no event was held in 2000, Coachella returned on an annual basis beginning in April 2001 as a single-day event. In 2002, the festival reverted to a two-day format. Coachella was expanded to a third day in 2007 and eventually a second weekend in 2012; it is now held on consecutive three-day weekends in April, with the same lineup each weekend. Organizers began permitting spectators to camp on the grounds in 2003, one of several expansions and additions in the festival's history. The festival was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.