Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and travis scott These are undoubtedly the major attractions for next year’s Coachella festival in America. However, despite the star-power of the headliners – and Coachella’s status as one of the world’s largest contemporary music festivals – questions have been raised as to whether it is enough to prevent the juggernaut from collapsing.
It’s no secret that the festival market is in danger. At local level, many events like glory in the grass And Falls Festival canceled its 2024 and 2025 runs, with commentators attributing the cancellation to the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and changes in fan behavior.
Taking over Indio, California, just outside of Los Angeles each April, Coachella attracts just under 600,000 festival-goers over its two weekends, making it a cultural touchstone for the festival season.
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However, the following a decline in ticket sales Last year, Coachella’s status was in jeopardy. Tickets for this year’s Coachella were still available four days after they went on sale, a sharp contrast to the 40-minute ticket sale in 2015.
This year is the first year in 25 years that the festival did not sell out.
Speaking to some industry sources, 7NEWS.com.au understands there are a number of factors involved when it comes to the future of Coachella.
The global pandemic and current cost of living crisis has led to a lack of early commitment from ticket buyers.
A general admission pass costs around US$500, while travel and accommodation can cost punters thousands of rupees, and food and drink prices regularly make headlines. a couple cited Two coffees and two burritos cost A$92 In 2023.
Live music industry expert and Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, Dr Sam Whiting, told 7NEWS.com.au that since the pandemic, live music audiences have fundamentally changed.
“Both the cost of living and the way we access and discover new music are having a profound impact on live music events, with more people preferring safe bets rather than new experiences,” Dr Whiting said.
“In Australia, more and more punters are saving their money for a few big arena concerts a year, and attending less multi-genre festivals. This raises the question of whether classic genre-bending festivals like California’s Coachella will survive.
There has been a change in audience behavior at Coachella due to influencer takeovers and brand fatigue.
In recent years the festival has been called a business-impacting event. This follows an influx of content creators who are seen posing with band activations in VIP sections, rather than singing along.
Chapelle Rhone Famously called the VIP section At the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco in August. Performing their hit song Hot to Go!, (which includes a signature dance performed by their fans in unison), he scolded them: “It’s so weird that VIPs think they’re so cool for doing this!”
Live music industry expert Dr Sam Whiting said one way to take into account the change in audience behavior is to have strong headliners who can carry the festival line-up on their own.
“Coachella has long followed this model,” he said, “Lady Gaga, Green Day, Charli XCX, Post Malone and Travis Scott have been announced as headliners for the 2025 edition. However, questions remain.” is whether these pop giants can carry the rest of an extremely eclectic lineup, consisting primarily of emerging talents rather than established artists with dedicated fan bases.
Coachella’s partnership with YouTube has resulted in potential punters opting for the free ‘Coachella’ instead.
The partnership with the streaming giant could offer a higher-quality livestream and expand Coachella’s global reach, but it could also lead to a decline in ticket sales.
After live-streaming began via YouTube in 2011, tickets sold out in just three hours in 2012, compared to three days the previous year.
However, after more than a decade, more budget-conscious punters are abandoning the event in real life. Some commentators believe that watching the festival for free, from the comfort of your own home, takes away from the uniqueness of the festival.
“We’ve all heard stories from aunties and uncles that they saw something amazing at a festival during their youth, and how you Was To be there,” Rowan Byers wrote in an article goat.
“You could argue that YouTube is taking away that exclusivity, and perhaps everything that makes these events so unique and personalized. People who have secured tickets (at great cost) and flown across the country (or across the world) to see their favorite artist perform may feel wrong if there are spectators at home who are free to watch. Can get similar experience in.
The increasing democratization of music and the rise of niche tastes have significantly impacted Coachella’s ability to produce a universally appealing lineup.
Thanks to streaming services and affordable distribution options for artists, more work than ever is coming out across different genres and subgenres. For Coachella, and music festivals as a whole, it is harder than ever to satisfy a diverse audience with increasingly specific preferences.
This fragmentation of the music landscape means that there are now more “idols” catering to small, dedicated fan bases, rather than a few universally recognized headliners.
Coachella is not alone in the battle to navigate the complex web of musical interests and balance established acts with emerging talent across a variety of genres.
“These days it acts more like a showcase event for the music industry than a coherent brand,” Whiting told Coachella.
,[It provides] Emerging talents with the opportunity to break into new audiences, as was the case with Sabrina Carpenter in 2024, who made the live debut of her world-winning single ‘Espresso’ at the festival,” he said.
“It remains to be seen whether this approach will be beneficial, but we can definitely say that Coachella will continue to push the boundaries for new talent, featuring some of the most talked-about acts of 2024 as well as some safe bets. “
However, yesterday’s lineup announcement brought some hope for Australian music fans.
Not only did the lineup include four Australian acts: Amyl and the Sniffers, Parcel, Glass Beams, and Speed, the sold-out attendees Laneway Festival Get a local primer from some Coachella artists.
Ticketholders for February’s St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival are in for a treat, featuring underground pop sensation turned global star Charli XCX, Stranger Things actor Joe Keery’s synth-pop project Joe, and Atlanta singer-songwriter Clairo – all for just two. Includes performances. A few months before his scheduled appearance at Coachella.
Artists often create a specific ‘festival set’ for the early months of the year, tailored to a number of global festivals. This means that Charli
2025 coachella lineup
Friday, April 11 and 18
- Lady Gaga
- missy elliott
- benson boon
- Marias
- Lisa
- prodigy
- parcel
- fka twigs
- Mustard
- soft p
- glorilla
- yet
- go-gos
- marina
- Who
- Tyla
- sarah landry
- you holy souls
- d4vd
- Artemis
- miike snow
- three 6 mafia
- chris lorenzo
- st john
- 4batz
- old culture
- tink
- maribou state
- eye dress
- AG Cook
- CA7RIEL and Paco Amoroso
- Chris Stacey
- Damian Lazarus
- Julie
- Austin Mills
- lola young
- tinlicer
- pace
- Sen Kuti and Egypt 80
- Ravin Lena
- beltran
- On the top
- los miralos
- parisi
- Pete Tong x Ahmed Spins
- knees
- Shermanology
- vs self
- high tech
- moon shoes
- coco and breezy
- Glixon
- erase
Saturday, April 12 and 19
- green day
- charli xcx
- original misfits
- no music
- beyond beyond
- Anita
- evan cornejo
- Clairo
- enhypene
- shoreline mafia
- t-pain
- Hanuman
- sam fender
- Japanese breakfast
- beth gibbons
- dark side
- eli brown
- Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil
- Jimmy Eat World
- viagra boys
- disco lines
- blonde redhead
- emily lens
- Alok
- Yo Gabba Gabba!
- glass rays
- challenge
- 2hollis
- Mind Against X Maisano
- Klangkuenstler
- Greetings!
- horse carriage
- el malila
- medium build
- underlines
- Indo Warehouse
- Indira Paganotto
- infected Mushroom
- departure
- Layton Giordani
- dj gigola
- HAAi
- judeline
- pangea together
- bob waylon
- jail case
- coupon
Sunday, April 13 and 20
- post malone
- Megan Thee Stallion
- Zedd
- junior h
- jenny
- craftwork
- beabadobee
- polo and pan
- on xg
- Basement Jaxx
- keshi
- pursuit and status
- still woozie
- Sammy Virji
- jesse murph
- Arka
- Rema
- shabooji
- Ty Dolla $ign
- circle jerks
- ben bohmer
- amyl and sniffers
- boris brejcha
- dixon x jimmy jules
- Muni Long
- Amaray
- bigxthaplug
- snow strippers
- fuckers
- interplanetary criminal
- dennis cruz
- VTSS
- between
- Yellow
- MEUT
- francis mercier
- hope lock
- sparrow and barbarossa
- ginger root
- AMÉMÉ
- soft play
- Mohammad Ramzan
- Jail
- kumo 99
- Desiree
- tripolism
- Yulia Niko
Registration for access to the pass is now open coachella.com,
Presale starts from Saturday:
- 6am AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time)
- 5am AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
- 5:30am ACDT (Australian Central Daylight Time)
- 3am AWST (Australian Western Standard Time)
