Rock giants set for desert
Dylan, the Rolling Stones, McCartney and others confirmed for Indio in October.
It’s official: Six acts with a claim to be on the Mt. Rushmore of rock music will perform for the first time on the same stage over three nights in October in the Coachella Valley.
Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Who, Neil Young and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters are confirmed for the Oct. 7- 9 event at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, the annual site of the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals. Tickets will range from $ 199 to $ 1,599, according to concert promoter Goldenvoice.
Music industry veterans say the lineup places it high on the list of all- time greatest concerts.
“I can’t think of a concert as big as this one,” said Jim Guerinot, a talent agent and former promoter. “Neil Young opening for Paul McCartney — are you kidding me?”
Popular interest in the concert has been strong since The Times reported details April 15, and Goldenvoice President Paul Tollett said he has been inundated
with suggestions for other artists to include, such as Led Zeppelin.
Tollett said his aim was to include artists who helped shape rock music but were still touring, writing and recording new material.
“This is about artists who are still creating, who are still relevant,” he said.
In deference to what is expected to be an older audience, Goldenvoice will offer seating in grandstands and on the ground — unlike the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, where the crowd either stands or sits on the grass.
Tickets, which go on sale Monday, will start at $ 199 for single- day general admission passes and top out at $ 1,599 for reserved seats for all three days. General admission three- day passes will sell for $ 399.
Plans also call for roughly two dozen high- end tent suites for large groups — akin to luxury boxes — that will be placed atop the grandstands. Tollett didn’t specify the pricing for those.
“We still don’t know what the audience is going to be,” Tollett said. “One reason I decided to have some singleday tickets available, unlike Coachella and Stagecoach, is that I didn’t want somebody to feel excluded if they couldn’t afford to come for the whole weekend.”
Goldenvoice, a unit of AEG, plans to cap ticket sales at about the same level the company has done for Stagecoach in recent years, at 70,000 to 75,000 a day.
Coachella has held attendance in recent years at 99,000 a day for six days since Goldenvoice began holding it over two weekends in 2012.
Unlike Coachella and Stagecoach, the October event is not being treated as a festival because it features just two acts a day, each playing full sets.
Performers will take the stage after sundown, with their full concert productions, rather than abbreviated performances typical of multi- act festivals.
Dylan and the Stones will be paired to open the event Oct. 7, Young will precede McCartney on Oct. 8 and the Who and Waters will close the weekend on Oct. 9.
Tollett said the three- day show will not be given a name, a la Coachella and Stagecoach.
“We are not trying to brand anything,” he said. “This is happening one time, and that’s it.”
Also distinguishing the October event from festivals in general, the performers will use a single stage, to be erected in the northeast quadrant of the grounds at the Empire Polo Field.
The impossible- dream aspect of pulling together a half- dozen of the most inf luential artists in rock history on a single bill “was part of the appeal,” Tollett said during an interview in his trailer backstage at Stagecoach. He said the event has been in the works for about 10 months.
“I spent probably two months just thinking about which six acts,” he said. “I think these six are pretty special.”
Tollett said another motivation behind the October concert that’s different from Coachella is “to do a very focused rock ’ n’ roll show. At Coachella and so many of our events, we have a wide variety from indie rock to pop to hip- hop to EDM. I wanted to focus this on guitar- bass- and- drums rock ’ n’ roll.”
The seed for that focused approach may have been planted f ive years ago when Goldenvoice marked the company’s 30th anniversary promoting shows with a three- night event that culled many of the punk bands promoted by Goldenvoice founder Gary Tovar when he launched the company in 1981.
Along with providing seats, Goldenvoice is instituting several amenities, including an expanded menu of pop- up restaurants, in addition to the food and beverage booths typically at Coachella and Stagecoach.
Tollett said about onethird of the capacity will be allotted to reserved seating — with prices tiered at $ 699, $ 999 and $ 1,599 — with the rest allotted for open areas for those who buy general admission tickets. Although the event has no name, Goldenvoice said it soon will launch a website containing event information at www.deserttrip.com.
Hotels in the region are already being booked quickly.
Travelocity and Expedia websites note that both are 85% booked for the Oct. 7- 9 weekend, although that might not necessarily mean those are all taken by people hoping to buy tickets to the October concerts.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they are f illing up now,” said Joshua Bonner, president and chief executive of the Indio Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.