As it turns out, Coachella didn’t need all that extra time to sell tickets.
Last week, the music festival went on sale months earlier than in previous years as part of a concerted effort to sell as many tickets as possible after falling short of selling out two years in a row. By going on sale Friday (Sept. 19), Coachella’s organizer, Goldenvoice, gave itself seven months to sell out of the 250,000 tickets it puts on sale for the two-weekend festival.
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But thanks to a strong lineup, which includes Justin Bieber‘s first concert since 2022, Coachella sold out of tickets in about four days — an incredible feat for a mature festival that few, if any, industry watchers saw coming.
After all, the festival business is a fairly mature industry that has dramatically changed since the pre-pandemic period when festivals like Coachella sold out thanks to strong bookings like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. A decade ago, Coachella and its country music counterpart Stagecoach were monoliths in festival-friendly Southern California, but today, consumers have more options than ever to spend their entertainment dollars.
Not only are there more festivals to choose from than a decade ago, but festivals are now competing against headliner acts like Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, all of whom can easily fill a stadium and charge half as much as Goldenvoice needs to charge to break even on its elaborate annual festival in the desert.
The fact that Goldenvoice sold out the festival after two years of missing the mark in one of the most competitive festival environments to date is an impressive feat and a testament to both its strong lineup this year and consumer trust in the quality of the Coachella brand and the overall fan experience.
