Is Coachella Changing?
When I got a ticket to Coachella - it was my ultimate music festival dream. I couldn't believe little old me from East London managed to bag a ticket to one of the most dreamy Californian Festivals in Palm Springs.
Coachella was officially founded in 1999 and although it's roots can be traced to 1993 the festival has traditionally been associated with a wide indie and rock offering. However, Coachella 2018 bought shockwaves to the traditional 'Chella crowd once the headline acts were announced. The Weeknd, Beyoncé and Eminem - all three traditionally hailing from an Urban music scene were the acts that were given access to the main stage and set to offer the largest shows at the end of each day.
I originally bought a ticket acknowledging that Beyoncé was likely to headline due to her cancellation last year. I had plans to be chilling by the food stalls this year but instead I found that I would have to make sacrifices between rappers, RnB singers and neo-soul newcomers. Despite this new wave in Coachella I don’t think that it will lead to a permanent change to the Coachella scene.
Millennials and the ever important Generation Z are more attracted to consuming experiences than ever before - even with little disposable income. People as a whole are looking for the next best experience. We have seen festivals such as Glastonbury promote urban acts as well as smaller festivals such as Wireless and Parklife Festival be more proactive in supporting urban acts on a traditional indie platform. However, we cannot deny that urban music as a whole is getting bigger and can now be regarded as pop (popular music). I saw about 80% of the Coachella audience imitate rap lyrics of Cardi B and Migos perfectly so I personally think that this music should be acknowledged on a festival platform.
2018 saw a collective of firsts such as MHD - the first French rapper to perform on a Coachella stage. These guys specialises in Afrotrap inspired by his Guinean and Senegalese roots whilst touching on French Hip Hop routes. Beyoncé was of course trending for a mind-blowing performance featuring 100 dancers, extra staging and special guests in her traditional superwoman execution but also acknowledged being the first black female to ever headline the festival.
Coachella has also been serving as a gateway to the UK urban music with acts like Stormzy trending last year and this year we got to see Troyboi and Jorja Smith really own their sets. Despite the change in the music - I don't think that you can change Coachella for what it is which is essentially a "Rich Kids Playground" - in the words of a close friend. The changes reflect changes of a hard-to-define demographic as opposed to a forced agenda from the Coachella organisers and music industry.
As with all festivals the food prices and merchandise at Festivals they were severely overpriced even when matched against quality reminding everyone on the type of audience this is catered for. I received reports from veteran festival attendees that the crowd has changed due to music genres however with 99,000 people attending across the two weekends, it is expected that we have a diverse amount of attendees.
These images are a mini series of 'Humans of Coachella' so you can get a snippet of the diversity that exists among attendees.