Coachella And Woodstock, A World Music Festival With A Different Mission

The Coachella 2022 music festival takes place April 15-17 and April 22-24 in Indio, California. For the first time Indonesian musicians attended this music festival. (Twitter@coachella)

JAKARTA - This year's 2022 Coachella music festival, apart from attracting the attention of live music lovers, the world's citizens are also in the spotlight of the Indonesian public. The reason is that there are three musicians from Indonesia who had the opportunity to perform at the prestigious music festival.

The three are Niki Zefanya, Rich Brian, and Warren. Niki made her mark as the first Indonesian female singer to perform at Coachella 2022, the annual art music festival in the United States.

Niki Zefanya, Indonesian musician performing at the 2022 Coachella music festival. (Instagram@nikizefanya)

After a hiatus of two years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this music festival is finally back at the Empire Polo Club, Indio, California, United States. The event will be held for two weeks on April 15-17 and April 22-24. Since being held in 1999 this festival has been visited by 250 thousand fans from all over the world. Coachella has become one of the most influential music festival events today.

As a result of the 1999 Woodstock Riot

Quoted from superlive.id, the Woodstock music festival riots in 1999 which claimed lives were considered the forerunner to the founding of Coachella. At that time all music festivals were potentially violent and dangerous. So what is the difference between Woodstock and Coachella?

Woodstock was present in 1969, at a time when the United States was hooked on the war with Vietnam and the rise of anti-war hippies. The younger generation of America affected by The Draft or conscription finally felt fed up with war.

Woodstock was first held on August 15-18, 1969 with the mission of resisting military aggression, its presence was greeted with great fanfare because everyone wanted peace. To this day Woodstock is considered an iconic music festival. Despite all the controversy in every show.

The appearance of Rage Against The Machine at the 1999 Woodstock Festival which ended in riots and claimed three lives. (WIKIPEDIA)

Coachella was originally held, intended to provide a stage for musicians and artists who are not popular in the media or radio. For indie artists, Coachella is an opportunity for them to show their best performance. However, because it is becoming more global, Coachella has also brought big names in the music industry to its stage.

Coachella is the name of a valley in the Colorado Desert, California. In this valley there are several cities, one of which is Indio, which is the location of the Coachella music festival.

The Coachella valley area is very popular as a tourist destination in winter. The location is very spacious and away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, making Coachella very suitable for big music festivals, as a means of releasing boredom.

Paul Tollet's idea

Reporting from the timeout.com page, Coachella was first held in October 1999 by featuring Beck and Rage Against the Machine. This event is a music festival at an affordable price. Tickets sold by organizers, namely Goldenvoice, are only US$50 per day.

Paul Tollet is the brains of this music festival. Tollet became a promoter of the band Pearl Jam in 1999, when the band held a concert in Indio, California.

Paul Tollet (left) the originator of the Coachella music festival which was originally intended for indie musicians around the world. (YouTube Screenshot)

Although many initially laughed at his idea, Tollet was successful at his inaugural Coachella festival. The first event suffered a loss of up to 850 thousand US dollars or around Rp. 12.1 billion, because a total of 70 thousand tickets were only sold 37 thousand tickets.

However, Goldenvoice's decision to provide tickets for two days has an effect on soaring revenues. This festival is the first music event to earn more than 100 million US dollars or around Rp. 1.4 trillion in a year. This profit was obtained from 250 thousand people who watched this music festival.

Artist Honor

Until now, Tollet still gives him the stage for musicians from indie to famous. Honors for indie bands get paid 500 US dollars, or around Rp. 7.1 million to 100 thousand US dollars, or around Rp. 1.43 billion.

For the main star can get paid up to 1 million US dollars. The record for highest payouts still belongs to Beyonce in 2018.

This year's Coachella pass for three days is sold from US$449 or Rp.6.4 million to US$1,119, or around Rp.16 million.

The Coachella music festival is held almost every year. Only in 2000 this festival was absent, because at that time there were many similar music festivals which caused saturation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was again postponed from 2020 to 2021, until it finally came back in 2022.