Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is an annual arts festival that is held in Indio, California. It is a six-day-long, two-weekend event that showcases a variety of artists with different genres and sounds. Superstars like Beyonce, Kanye West and Lady Gaga have performed in previous years.
However, in regard to this year, Coachella is not getting a lot of buzz due to the dull lineup and bigger competition with more reasonable prices. “Personally, I do not know anyone that was thinking about attending Coachella this year, including myself,” said 3rd-year health science major Najah Russel.
With the lineup listing of Bad Bunny, Willow Smith, and Becky G, the headliners are not as attention-grabbing compared to other music festivals, such as Rolling Loud and Orange Crush.
“I do not know anyone I know attending Coachella, but I have heard a lot of my peers mentioning that they will go to Orange Crush or Rolling Loud,” said Dylan Jace Leferink, a 2nd-year criminal justice major. “It just seems to be too repetitive, there will be some good artists rolling through every now and then, but really ever since Beyonce, Coachella just started to lose its hype.”
As the semester starts to wind down, many FAMU students are starting to plan other vacations and trips, so it seems Coachella wasn’t on many students’ radars. Many students believe that it is the same choice in artists and music instead of a culture that many people gravitate towards. Also, Coachella is located in California, which can be a hassle to travel for a college student just weeks before finals.
Charis Williams, a junior public relations major, said, “I wanted to go when it was BeyChella.”
“What needs to be taken into consideration is really the cost of the tickets for the weekend. I can buy a whole weekend’s worth of rolling loud tickets for just one day at Coachella,” she said.
Making the festival cost-effective can be beneficial to college students. Coachella offers a wide range of music that attempts to target everyone. With cost, selections of artists, and competition of other festivals, there are many factors and solutions that can be made to try and put Coachella right back on the map.