Coachella ticket sales are sluggish

Photo Credit: Coachella Instagram

After Coachella 2024 tickets were available right up until Weekend 2 happened, Goldenvoice looked to snag huge-name talent to drive ticket sales. But the gambit doesn’t appear to be working as Weekend 2 general admission tickets are still widely available.

The Coachella 2024 line-up featured Lana Del Rey, Tyler, The Creator, and Doja Cat as headliners. Meanwhile, this year’s line-up features Lady Gaga, Green Day, and Post Malone (with Travis Scott tacked on). Posty performed at the sold-out Stagecoach Festival last year—highlighting that Goldenvoice isn’t having trouble selling out its country music-based festival.

Coachella’s place in the music festival zeitgeist has become one of celebrities and influencers—rather than solely music fans. While general admission tickets for weekend one are sold out, VIP packages for both weekends remain available. General admission this year costs $549, which is an increase over previous GA prices from years past. Hotel packages start at around $3,300 and top out at over $9,000 for the weekend.

The experience of getting to Palm Springs from LAX either weekend isn’t a great one, either. From four hours of traffic to $1,000 Uber rides to the festival, Coachella has become a status symbol among music fans. Without VIP passes, fans must walk to the festival following a dusty road, waiting with thousands of other attendees to be let inside the festival.

Once inside, three cans of beer will set concert goers back $45, with two tacos costing $16. While money flows like wine from some Coachella attendees, others may be tightening their budgets in the face of the incoming Trump administration. Trump has promised huge tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China—three of the United States’ biggest trade partners.

“On Saturday, in the over-flowing VIP section next to the main stage, it became clear that Coachella was no longer about the music, if it every really was, but the pictures you take along the way,” writes one attendee from Coachella 2023. “Obviously I partook in the trend—posting in front of the iconic festival circus wheel at golden hour. Because if there is no one to see photos of you in front of the ride, did you ever even really see it?”

Perhaps the trend of Coachella attendance among influencers and wealthy attendees is no longer in vogue—no matter the line-up that Goldenvoice can secure. Coachella is no longer about the music but about the experience you have while there—becoming more like Burning Man as the years pass. It doesn’t help that Coachella has had some high-profile stage performance failures, with Frank Ocean’s disastrous set in 2023 perhaps setting off the wave of non-ticket sales that still plagues the festival to this day.