With a growing scrapheap of cancelled music festivals due to struggling ticket sales, Big Day Out axing its 2015 edition after losing around $10 million, and an environment in which not even scalpers can seem to cash in – it would appear that the Aussie music festival scene is in a risky financial state.
By contrast, over in the US, there appears to be no such problem. Just take a look at the box office earnings of America’s answer to Glastonbury: Coachella.
The festival, hosted in the Indio desert in California, had its biggest year ever for its 2014 edition, breaking its own all-time ticket sales record for the third time in a row since expanding to its dual weekend format, according to Billboard, generating over US$ 78 million dollars in the process.
The lucrative figures were thanks to both weekends of (April 11 – 13th and following April 18-20) Coachella 2014 selling out to capacity crowds of 96,500 per day, for a total of 579,000 patrons, grossing US$ 78,332,00. That’s approximately $11 million larger than last year’s Coachella, which raised $67.2 million.
[include_post id=”398090″]
The draw would largely be thanks to the huge three-day lineup, headlined by the reformed Outkast, Muse, and Arcade Fire along with a massive bill that featured everyone from Lorde to Pharrell Williams, Queens of the Stone Age and an Aussie contingent featuring Courtney Barnett, Jagwar Ma, The Preatures, Flume, Empire of the Sun, and more.
Heck even celebrities profited off of Coachella’s profile, with reports that Hollywood actors and B-Grade profilers were ‘sponsored’ up to $20,000 to be seen out and about at the Californian event.
Coachella producers, Goldenvoice Presents – a division of international promoters AEG Live – also cleaned up the weekend following Coachella 2014, with the Stagecoach Festival. The country music event drew more than 190,200 boot-scooting punters, to the tune of US$ 18,615,000.
Golenvoice is set to do it all again next April, with pre-sale tickets to Coachella 2015 – set for April 10th – 12th and 17th- 19th – already sold out. General tickets will go on sale following the annual lineup announcement in January, 2015, but if you want to be prepared, check out Tone Deaf’s own Coachella Festival Guide, with all the travel info, accommodation recommendations, and insider tips and tricks to get you to the US event.
