The release of this Youtube Original documentary coincided with the scheduled start of Coachella's first weekend. Right now nobody has a clue when even medium sized gatherings will be allowed again, let along multi-day megafestivals. "20 Years in the Desert" is a fun way to spend two hours while under lockdown, although it already made me feel nostalgic for what already feels like ancient times (i.e. pre-January 2020), when flying in to attend a big festival could be so easy and straightforward.
The only real historical/critical worth of the documentary happens in the first twenty minutes, which details the festival's origins and features interviews from all the founders and other principal players. I didn't know that the organizers at Goldenvoice Entertainment came from both the punk and electronic music scenes, providing a synergy between two very distant genres in the 80's. Their foresight appears prophetic today. I also had no idea that tickets for the first Coachella went on sale the day after the end of the disastrous Woodstock '99. Talk about bad timing.
The rest of the documentary is a combination of festival highlights and self-promotion, the latter mostly centred around the festival's cultural cache. There are a few nods to major European festivals, but nothing in the way of a serious compare and contrast. What does Coachella offer that other worldwide festivals can't, or won't? In its admittedly large California-based sphere of influence, Coachella is definitely a trend-setter. It's a revolutionary festival only if it's the only festival you know or care about. Just to name one example, Glastonbury put electronic acts in headlining spots more than a decade earlier, and Jay-Z headlined there two years before his supposedly history-making set at Coachella.
In the early years, Coachella was mainly known as the festival of reunions. Organizing the Jane's Addiction reunion was a coup that made the festival relevant almost overnight. The Pixies had reunited months before they appeared, but their headlining set was still a huge accomplishment. It arguably launched the wave of cult band reunions and proved that there was huge money to be made from Gen-X nostalgia. But they risked letting the reunion gimmick define and limit them, because there are only so many truly big reunions you can have. The documentary didn't give them enough credit for ransforming their image from an indie rock festival to a truly eclectic one that hands over headline spots to DJs (Tiesto) or to newer talents without a pre-existing legacy (Travis Scott). Another understated achievement was the decision to livestream nearly the entire festival starting a few years ago. This boosted their global presence immensely.
I would have liked to hear more about the logistics of organizing the two weekend festival, starting in 2012. How did they convince all the bands to go for it?
Moby brought up a point I'd never considered before, that European festivals are mostly enjoyable and have great atmospheres, but they're also cold, rainy, and muddy a lot of the time. A big part of making the yearly multi-day festival a viable concept in the US was undoubtedly the more favourable California weather.
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