| NEWS 09.23.09 2:58 PM |
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Glut of Events This Week—Across Industries—Points to Fall Season Pickup
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Earlier this month, we reported that event professionals expected the fall season to bring back an abundance of events—and if this week in Los Angeles is any indication, business is back big time.
Tonight brings events across all industries, from entertainment (a screening and cast performance of Fame, handled by ELS at the Grove, and the Zombieland premiere, produced by 15/40 Productions at the Chinese Theatre) to retail (Target's U.C.L.A. promotion) to music (the inaugural Ooh La L.A. French music festival, produced by Goldenvoice at the Henry Fonda Theatre through Friday) to charitable causes (pet adoptions, cocktails, and fund-raising at L.A. Dogworks).
The event industry has its own event, ISES's Jam networking and trade show event at the Millenium Biltmore. Participating organizations include ISES Orange County and San Diego, M.P.I. Southern California, Wedding Industry Professionals Association, Association of Bridal Consultants, Set Decorators Society of America, Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, and others. Expect a flurry of tweeting from the floor.
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ISES L.A., Susan G. Komen Foundation, Target, U.C.L.A., Macy's, Macy's Passport, Diane von Furstenberg, Amp Energy, Belvedere Vodka, Orange County Style Week, Country Friends, Zombieland, Fame, Ooh La L.A. Festival, Goldenvoice, Variety, Candy Ice, Voices for Children |
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| EVENT REPORT 04.20.09 1:11 PM |
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Signs of the Times: Coachella Returns With a Layaway Plan and an iPhone App
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 | A fire-breathing serpent art installation at Coachella
Photo: BizBash |
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Here’s the thing about the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival: It’s completely implausible. The Empire Polo Field venue in Indio is more than 100 miles from metropolitan Los Angeles—in a place where temperatures can soar above 100 degrees in April. Plus, at a time when other concerts are cutting prices to lure crowds, the cost of Coachella has not decreased: The three-day festival now costs $269, not including service fees, or $300 at the door, which means the cost for an average attendee’s weekend with lodging and food could easily hover around $1,000. And that’s in a recession.
Nevertheless, the tenth annual incarnation of the festival—which began on Friday with a sold-out program headlined by Paul McCartney that appealed to an older crowd on a mild-for-the-desert day and wrapped Sunday—drew thousands of its faithful into the desert, where acts including the Cure, the Killers, M.I.A., and Morrissey also got top billing among about 150 acts. To encourage attendance, festival organizer Goldenvoice—led by Paul Tollett—offered fans the opportunity to purchase their tickets on a layaway plan for the first time, paying either with 50 percent down or in three installments. Goldenvoice also offered camping passes on layaway. (Goldenvoice does not release official attendance numbers until after the show concludes and the official figure is tallied.)
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Coachella, Goldenvoice, Going Green, Global Inheritance, AT&T, iPhone |
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| NEWS 04.13.09 5:23 PM |
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Coachella Preview: Global Inheritance Puts Senior Citizens on Reengineered Golf Carts as Part of Earth-Conscious Programming
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 | A preview of Global Inheritance's wind-powered golf cart
Photo: Todd Doherty |
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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an event known for continual reinvention. To that end, Global Inheritance, the nonprofit that comes up with and executes Coachella's environmentally friendly programs, has a few new tricks up its sleeve for this year's festival, which kicks off Friday at the Empire Polo Field in Indio.
The "18 & Up" program (which makes a play off the 18 holes on a golf course) brings together engineers and artists to reeningeer and decorate golf carts to use wind, solar, ethanol, and biodiesel instead of standard fuel as a means of educating concertgoers about alternative energy sources. Artists will decorate the carts with themes built around festival artists such as M.I.A., Franz Ferdinand, and Amy Winehouse, whose presence was announced, and then not surprisingly to anyone familiar with her track record, later stricken from the festival lineup. Every morning before the festival grounds open, Global Inheritance will host races in the carts, creating something of a spectacle. "We're going to have senior citizens driving around in the carts playing a round of golf," said Global Inheritance executive director Eric Ritz. "We thought [about doing the stunt with] either celebrities or senior citizens, and we thought seniors were a lot less [attitude] to deal with and a lot more fun."
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Coachella, Goldenvoice, Going Green, Global Inheritance |
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| NEWS 04.10.09 9:00 AM |
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Coachella Preview: Designers Remaking Last Year's Structures to Be "Pretty Much New"
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 | A peek at the Do Lab's Coachella installation
Rendering: Courtesy of the Do LaB |
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"The way we do things around here is we like to go bigger, otherwise it's not fun for us," said Jesse Flemming of the Los Angeles-based artist collective the Do Lab, which installs the huge-scale, widely recognizable installations on the Empire Polo Field grounds for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. But despite his preference, Flemming and the Do Lab are currently working with a budget roughly 75 percent the size of what they had for last year's festival, which is produced by Goldenvoice. They're beginning to load in right about now for the concert series, which runs April 17 through 19.
To conserve dollars, the Do Lab is reusing the basic framework from the structures it built for last year's festival. "Most people won't even notice it's the same structure—most people won't recognize them. We're changing the colors all around [and making other structural changes], so they're pretty much new," Flemming said, adding that the Do Lab team "uses a massive amount of volunteers and calls in a lot of favors," which they're willing to do in return for the exposure the festival affords.
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Coachella, Goldenvoice |
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| NEWS 02.27.09 5:11 PM |
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Coachella Enlists Local Artists to Enliven Festival's Recycling Program
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As the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival approaches in April, organizers are planning some new programs—for instance, Goldenvoice's recession-appropriate layaway ticket-buying option—as well as continuing some well-received ongoing ones, like the recycling effort that will enter its sixth year. To spruce up the offerings, Coachella-affiliated activism org Global Inheritance is inviting local artists to submit their work to be considered to design one of the 24 recycling bins featured at the festival. Bins that it deems "non-offensive" will go to the Los Angeles Unified School District after the event. This month, the group is selecting 24 artists and three alternates to redesign 96-gallon recycling bins. Winning artists will receive a pair of tickets for this year's festival. —Alesandra Dubin
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Coachella, Goldenvoice, Going Green, Global Inheritance |
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| NEWS 01.30.09 1:00 PM |
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Goldenvoice Announces Coachella Lineup, Offers Tickets on Layaway
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This morning, Goldenvoice announced its lineup for the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which will take to the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, from April 17 to 19. Some of the bands taking top billing this year include the Cure, Morrissey, Paul McCartney, and the Killers. In a sign of the financial times, Goldenvoice will—for the first time—offer its steep ticket packages ($269 for the three-day pass) and its camping passes on a layway plan, with consumers having the option of paying either 50 percent down or in three installments. —Alesandra Dubin
RELATED TOPICS
Coachella, Goldenvoice |
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| EVENT REPORT 04.28.08 12:44 PM |
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Coachella Festival Boosts Art Factor, Green Initiatives—and Comfort Level
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 | The scene on the Empire Polo Field
Photo: BizBash |
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FROM INDIO, CALIF. For a nearly decade-old festival with a storied history including financial woes, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has an uncanny way of reinventing itself and keeping its offerings fresh every spring. Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles-based producer of the festival, which began on Friday and wrapped yesterday at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, amped up programs geared toward environmental friendliness, artistic expression, and—most noticeable to the hordes who made the pilgrimage to the desert—concertgoers' comfort.
This year Goldenvoice introduced an expanded lobby area that featured lockers, vendors, restrooms, and water fountains, leaving more room on the main polo field for concertgoers to mingle. Over the three-day weekend, an estimated 150,000 people meandered through the bustling expanse of grass, with the biggest crowd on Saturday, the day with the most buzzed-about lineup. Prince, added late to the schedule, drew the most enthusiastic crowd and performed such unexpected songs as Radiohead's "Creep" (and more expected ones like "1999" and an encore including "Let's Go Crazy").
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Coachella, Amtrak, Goldenvoice, PlayStation, SingStar, AT&T, Virgin, Going Green |
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| NEWS 04.18.08 3:40 PM |
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Coachella to Feature New Amenities On Site, New Brands for Parties Off Site
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 | The crowded festival grounds in 2007
Photo: BizBash |
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Next weekend, many of the Los Angeles residents who fall into a certain demographic (loosely defined as young and music-minded, most with hipster affiliations and some disposable income), will flee the city for the desert in the annual pilgrimage known as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The festival at the Empire Polo Field, which noticeably works to reinvent itself annually, will bring with it some first-time initiatives (not to mention the last-minute add of Prince to the lineup). New for this year will be an expanded lobby area at the entrance, which will offer lockers, vendors, restrooms, and water fountains; the area will leave more room on the main polo field for people to mingle, as the space has become increasingly crowded. Also new: Coachella will offer fancy camping packages—tent options including beds, a breakfast buffet, and even air conditioning against the desert heat. Also, as we already reported, festival organizer Goldenvoice has partnered with Amtrak on a shuttle for campers between L.A. and Indio, one of many environmentally friendly projects underway for the festival.
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Coachella, Amtrak, GQ, Condé Nast, Anthem Magazine, Gap, T-Mobile, Sidekick, PlayStation, SingStar, Goldenvoice, Going Green |
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| NEWS 04.01.08 2:00 PM |
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Amtrak to Partner With Coachella Fest on Attendee Shuttle From L.A.
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 | The art-installation-dotted grounds at last year's Coachella festival
Photo: BizBash |
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Further developing its reputation for eco-friendly initiatives, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will feature a car-free way for attendees to reach its grounds this year. Last night, Goldenvoice announced that festival sponsor Amtrak has created a shuttle service between Los Angeles and the Empire Polo Field in Indio dubbed the Coachella Express, a free train that will transport concertgoers who hold tickets allowing access to the campgrounds.
Coachella, Amtrak, and the city of Indio are working together to create a temporary train platform in Indio; from there shuttle buses will transport concertgoers to and from the camping check-in area at the polo field and the temporary station. The festival runs April 25 through 28.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve the Coachella weekend,” said Paul Tollett of festival producer Goldenvoice in a release. “And this collaboration with Amtrak and the city of Indio is one in an ongoing plan to make a fan’s trip easier. This is a priority for ... all our festivals.” —Alesandra Dubin
RELATED TOPICS
Coachella, Amtrak, Goldenvoice, Going Green |
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