How a boycott of Ticketmaster accidentally birthed the world's most famous music festival

Cultures · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Coachella began not as a grand vision, but as a desperate pivot. After a 1993 Pearl Jam concert proved the Empire Polo Club could host massive crowds, promoters struggling against industry giants gambled on a new festival model. They aimed for an anti-Woodstock experience, prioritizing artistry over radio hits.

The roots of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lie in a 1993 dispute between the band Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster. Seeking a venue outside of Los Angeles to avoid the company's service charges, the band performed at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. This event proved the site’s viability for large-scale gatherings. By 1997, the promotion company Goldenvoice was losing ground to larger competitors like SFX Entertainment. Paul Tollett, a co-founder of the festival, noted that the company could not compete financially, leading them to conceive of a multi-stage festival as a way to aggregate trendy, artistic acts into a singular, magnetic event.

The inaugural festival took place in October 1999, just months after the chaotic Woodstock '99. The proximity to that event, which was marred by violence and arson, created significant pressure for the organizers. Goldenvoice saw their insurance costs spike by 40 percent, and Tollett later described the decision to announce the festival only two months before its debut as financial suicide. To distinguish themselves, they marketed a high-comfort experience, offering amenities like misting tents and free water, earning the event the moniker of the anti-Woodstock.

While the festival initially struggled to find its footing—skipping 2000 entirely and experimenting with formats—it eventually evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. From its humble beginnings with 25,000 attendees in 1999, it grew to host 250,000 people by 2017, generating $114.6 million in gross revenue. The festival's success eventually allowed Goldenvoice to expand the site's utility, launching the annual Stagecoach country festival in 2007. Today, Coachella stands as a testament to the enduring power of the music festival format, a tradition that traces its lineage back to 17th-century choral sermons and 18th-century secular gatherings in England.

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