The holidays have come early for music festival fans, with the lineup for next 2020 Coachella — scheduled for the second and third weekends of April — taking shape.
“While currently, right now (my staff) are working on production plans, I’m finalizing the poster,” Coachella founder and Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett said at the Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. “We’re pretty much done with the lineup this year, 95%.”
Citing only 150 slots at the festival and 4,000 submissions coming his way, Tollett noted that he does most of the booking himself and that it’s “not scientific.”
“(Right now), I’m more working on scheduling to make sure everyone gets the right thing,” Tollett said, referencing set times and stage selection. “I don’t like to lock in an artist at a set time, because between November and April, there could be a superstar we’ve booked that I don’t even know is going to be a superstar. If I put them in too small of a venue, it’s going to be tough. It’s hard to confirm someone and tell them ‘I don’t know where we are going to put you.’ There is some faith they have to have, and we have a good relationship with the artist community.”
The official lineup won’t be revealed until January, but “leak season” is already here.
In recent days, multiple media outlets have reported that Rage Against the Machine will reunite to headline on Friday nights April 10 and 17. Tollett did not confirm “Rage” in his Billboard Summit appearance, but cited their 2007 headlining performance as a milestone that he feared, at the time, would be tough to top.
The relentless community of year-round sleuths over at the Coachella subreddit has been making deductions on the Coachella 2020 lineup based on tour schedules, album releases, and social media clues. Their collective wisdom points to some combination of Travis Scott, Justin Timberlake, Coldplay, Frank Ocean, Lana Del Rey, and Rage getting the top billing. For the undercard, summer breakout Megan Thee Stallion, rapper Big Sean, and L.A. R&B duo Emotional Oranges have signaled that they will be on the poster.
Tollet himself admitted to peeking his head into the rumor mill and checking out fan-created prediction posters, called “mocks.”
“There’s so many rumors out there. The (mock) posters, I like looking at them, but they are unrealistic because they don’t have a salary cap. When I see them, I think ‘I can never live up to some of these wishlists.'”
The 21st edition of the music and arts festival takes place on the weekends of April 10-12 and April 17-19 in Indio, California.
Coachella 2019 Final Report Card: Winners and Losers, From Kanye West to Zedd (Photos)
As the masses decamp from Indio, California, we look back at the 2019 edition of the music and arts festival -- from highlights such as Kanye West and Sofi Tukker to disappointments like Zedd and a prickly sound system.
WINNER: Paul Tollett and the Booking Team
When the 2019 lineup was booked in summer and fall 2018, Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett (left) and his team had no way to know that country star Kacey Musgraves would cross over and win the top Grammy (Album of the Year), that Billie Eilish's months-away record would go to No. 1 in 70 countries, that relative unknown Lizzo would be surging with a hit or that U.S. audiences would buy in to K-Pop (Blackpink). They went "long" on a lot of bets that paid off. If they had a record label, they would be A&R savants.
Getty Images, Coachella
WINNER: The "Space Man" Returns
The Space Man (technically, "Overview Effect") returned after a five-year hiatus and was the roaming star of the fields. She (or he?) wore multiple wristbands, had a "hippo" from one of the other art installations stuck to it is moon boot, and rolled in to stages to check out marquee shows. Artwork like this truly makes the "and Arts Festival" part of the "Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival" ring true. It should be a fixture for every year.
Instagram/Kinetic Poetics
LOSER: Zedd
There's a recent tradition of a mass market EDM "feel good" act at sunset on the Main Stage on the final day. Calvin Harris, Kaskade and Major Lazer have filled this role in recent years. This year, Zedd got the gig and couldn't have played it any safer. He didn't even change out the oddball songs (e.g., "Bohemian Rhapsody") from his Los Angeles festival show nine months ago. It's not surprising that a "Top 40" songwriter who is headlining KIIS FM's "Wango Tango" concert would stick to radio versions of his pop hits at his biggest mass-market show of the year, but I expected more.
Courtesy of Coachella
WINNER: Gryffin
The "Remember" and "Tie Me Down" producer conducted a 13-piece orchestra and cooked up a sentimental Avicii tribute with Aloe Blacc at dusk on the two Saturday nights, adding on to momentum that's been building since his Gravity tour. "I grew up in the Bay Area and went to Coachella as a kid. It's the festival I always dreamed of playing. It means so much to me," he told The Party Report before taking the stage. "Craziest show of my entire life. Thank you @coachella," he posted afterwards.
Instagram/GryffinOfficial
IMPROVED: WiFi and Communications
What's App and other messaging apps worked much better than in the past. Coachella's own app pushed out real-time notifications and supported on-campus Postmates food orders to avoid waiting in lines, a win for both sides of these transactions.
Courtesy of Coachella
ENOUGH ALREADY: The Influencer Proliferation
With better cell service comes more Instagram clutter. The good news is that by Weekend 2, the influencer culture at the fest had depleted by about 70%. Social media stars and their camera crews had largely moved on from using the Empire Polo Club as the ultimate photo shoot location.
BREAKOUT: Lizzo
The body-positive singer has a legitimate "song of the summer" contender in "Juice." (It sounds just like a Bruno Mars earworm.) She packed her shows both weeks and shrugged off sound issues with a winning attitude. At some point in the next few months, she'll make a splash with a major TV or awards show appearance, especially if she shows off her mastery of the flute.
Getty Images
LOSERS: Sound Engineers
In addition to Lizzo, botched audio plagued Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, P. Diddy and Mase. If most DJ's microphones broke -- preventing them from shouting canned pump-up lines -- it would be a blessing. It's too bad it happened to the funniest guy in EDM, Dillon Francis, who shouted into a dead mic for the first few songs of his second-week set.
Courtesy of Coachella
MOST IMPROVED: The Menu
With high-end Postmates takeout on the grounds, sit-down restaurants and famous chefs like Roy Choi and Marcel Vigneron (left), Coachella promoter Goldenvoice should start selling a reduced-rate "food pass" for those who only want eats, not beats. Good bye, Coachella bod.
Courtesy of Coachella
WINNER: Sofi Tukker
Security had to be called in to contain the duo's overflow crowd for their high-energy dance party in the Mojave. These two are smart, and not just because they went to Brown. They lined up their release schedule to build towards Coachella, took out billboards on the highway leading in to Indio and plotted a new show to make a splash in the desert. It worked. There are a lot of new Sofi Tukker fans coughing up dust this week.
Getty Images
TREND ON THE RISE: Speakeasy Clubs
What started with the "Secret Tiki Bar" a few years ago has blossomed into multiple secret enclaves throughout the grounds. The '70s-themed "Hush Hush" disco had a New Year's Eve party every night. Hiding in plain sight in a beer garden, the Absolut Planet Tent (above) was churning 6,600 people a day during the first weekend. These air-conditioned portals to alternative party environments brought the "Easter egg" mentality of video games to life.
Courtesy of Absolut
SURPRISE: Electronic Veterans
With hip-hop as the dominant genre of youth culture, even the famed dance-mecca Sahara tent has ceded ground. When Diplo (pictured) and Dillon Francis -- two of the most familiar faces, Vegas mainstays and best friends -- landed on the lineup, they came with the lowest of expectations. Again?! Francis has been at four of the last seven Coachellas -- probably more than anyone else except Diplo. Yet each won over the grizzled audience with fresh material and a new set in exactly the way that Zedd did not. Bonus points to Francis for winking at his eye-straining visuals during intense drops with graphics that said "Yikes!"
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WINNER (Begrudingly): Kanye West
West dominated the 2019 Coachella news cycle from the pre-season until the final day. Initially rumored to be a headliner, stories then came out that he cut off conversations when promoter Goldenvoice wouldn't build him his own dome on the grounds. Then, by creating his own show on a "mountain" in the campgrounds in the feral Sunday morning sleep-in timeslot and drawing transportation and logistics resources just for him, he commanded all of the attention on the festival's final day. If the festival doesn''t repeat the "Sunday Service" in the future, 2019 will be remembered as the "Kanye Sunday Service" year. (Note: In 2020, Easter falls on the Sunday of what could be Coachella's first weekend.)
Liam McRae
WINNER: YouTube
YouTube streamed multiple channels of live sets during the first weekend that made "Couch-ella" a viable option, reportedly racking up over 80 million views. For the second weekend, they interspersed live sets with short form pre-recorded "Coachella-adjacent" content that continues to propel the festival in to a lifestyle brand. As a finishing touch, they also convinced team Kanye to let them stream his "Sunday Service" on Easter morning, turning it in to an event. Here, Global Head of Music at YouTube Lyor Cohen and CEO of YouTube Susan Wojcicki hung in the Youtube Music lounge backstage.
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RISING STAR: White Claw
This is a public service announcement for "Oldchella": Meet White Claw, Gen-Z's version of Zima. This alcoholic seltzer water was not a part of the festival or any parties (as far as I know), but apparently has mass popularity among the under-25s. I spotted it being chugged on the shuttles, snatched off the shelves at the local stores, co-headlining in campers' Instagram feeds (above) and used as the T-shirt uniform of choice for a group of festival goers. My review: It tastes like seltzer water.
Instagram/Gabe_Robless
Check out TheWrap's review of Beyonce's Coachella documentary "Homecoming" here.
Lizzo, YouTube, Gryffin, and L.A. food culture are leaving Indio as winners, but Zedd and the influencers delivered nothing new
As the masses decamp from Indio, California, we look back at the 2019 edition of the music and arts festival -- from highlights such as Kanye West and Sofi Tukker to disappointments like Zedd and a prickly sound system.
Getty Images, Coachella
