The final numbers on the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., are in, and it’s another Boxscore record for the world’s highest-grossing festival, produced by Goldenvoice, a division of AEG Live.
With a lineup that included AC/DC, Alabama Shakes, Jack White, The Weeknd, and Drake, Coachella grossed a staggering $84,264,264 in ticket sales from a total of 198,000 tickets sold, both records. In its fourth year as a two-weekend event (April 10-12 and April 17-19) with virtually identical lineups, Coachella sold out its capacity of 99,000 per weekend.
Coachella has broken its own record each of those four years; last year, Coachella grossed $78.3 million, with attendance of 193,000 for the two weekends, according to Boxscore. Coachella was named Top Festival at the 2014 Billboard Touring Awards for the fourth straight year, dating back to its last year as a one-weekend festival in 2011 when the gross was $25 million and attendance was 75,000.
Tickets were priced at $375—$899 in 2015, with the upper end up $100 from last year’s range of $799 and $375. The festival sold out 11 months in advance, before the lineup was ever announced. This was the sixth year Coachella has gone on sale before announcing the lineup, and selling out under that circumstance shows fans have faith that Coachella founder and talent buyer Paul Tollett will deliver the goods. “If we sell those tickets,” Tollett told Billboard just prior to Coachella 2015’s launch, “we have to make sure we come through for people with a good time.”
The weekend following Coachella, April 24-26, the country music festival Stagecoach, also produced by Goldenvoice, came off at the same Empire Polo Grounds site, and also did record business. With headliners Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, Stagecoach grossed $21,879,744 and sold 70,000 tickets per day for the weekend. While Stagecoach tickets remained the same, 2015’s gross was up from last year’s take of $18.6 million, and daily attendance of 63,400, and a marked increase over the festivals first year, 2007, when attendance was 55,164 for a gross of just over $5 million.
Tickets prices ranged from $249 to $799 for Stagecoach 2015. Over seven festivals, and despite a boom in the country fest market, StageCoach remains arguably the most important country music play West of the Mississippi.
