Coachella Countdown

Music's biggest weekend

Since 1999, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has grown into the most-watched festival on earth, with headliners across pop, rock, hip-hop and electronic music, large-scale art installations, and sets live-streamed to millions.

Two weekends in April

The lineup plays twice, across two consecutive three-day weekends in mid-April. Passes for both weekends regularly sell out long before the gates open, this countdown targets the first Friday.

The $850,000 flop that built an empire

The first Coachella, held October 9–10, 1999, looked like a disaster. Announced just weeks after the chaos of Woodstock '99, it drew only about 17,000–20,000 people a day — roughly half what promoter Goldenvoice needed — despite $50 tickets and headline sets from Beck, Tool and Rage Against the Machine. Goldenvoice lost around $850,000, and Rage Against the Machine famously returned half its fee to help keep the promoter afloat. There was no festival at all in 2000; Coachella came back in 2001 as a single day and never looked back.

Stream it free, or plan a year ahead

Can't make the desert? Coachella streams both weekends free on its official YouTube channel, starting around 4 p.m. Pacific each day, with a multiview grid that lets you watch four stages at once and several stages in 4K. To go in person, register at coachella.com before the advance sale — passes are sold months ahead, and Weekend 2 is usually the easier ticket. Many festivalgoers add a shuttle pass, which beats parking on the polo fields.

Quick facts

• Held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California
• Two identical three-day weekends each April
• First held in 1999
• Sets are live-streamed to millions worldwide
• Daily capacity is around 125,000 people
• Beyoncé became the festival's first Black woman headliner in 2018