Greed drowns out music at Coach-sell-a
THE WORLD NEEDS a Woodstock. Instead we get Coachella. The heavily hyped music festival that’s all about brands and bands — in that order — got underway in Indio, Calif., over the weekend. And the masses of publicists linked to the event aren’t even pretending this is about anything substantial. One of the hundreds of pitches that entertainment editors found in their inbox from the weekend was a gem that included photos of actress Taryn Manning and dancer Mark Ballas pimping products, along with this suggested caption: “XXX attends (event name redacted) sponsored by XXX and XXX.” That was followed by the names of 10 sponsors listed “from most important to least important” to help us fill in those XXX’s. Sorry, Deep Eddy Vodka — you were “least.” A week removed from the debut and immediate cancellation of her tone-deaf Pepsi commercial parodying protesters at demonstrations, reality star turned “model” Kendall Jenner popped into events around town including one at a pop-up version of the 1Oak nightclub chain. And while Woodstock saw Jimi Hendrix and his electric guitar reimagine our national anthem, Revolve, a party linked to Coachella, gave us this pitch: “Tyga attends the Interscope Coachella BBQ, where guests sipped on Electric Sky Wine.”
Even the marijuana is sponsored at Coachella, thanks to cannabis themed parties from Kushella Life and Weedmaps Oasis — the latter of which had a half-dozen co-sponsors.
We’re told that celebs including Disney Channel star Peyton List enjoyed the American Express Platinum House, which featured SoulCycle classes. Delta Air Lines hosted “a casual day of conversation amongst music’s top innovators, pioneers and legends in music, technology and business.” We have no idea what was discussed, but “Pretty Little Liars” star
Shay Mitchell attended and “guests left with Away luggage, Monster Products headphones, pool floats by Float Naked and rides home from Tesloop.”
We also know that Katy Perry (photo inset) “was spotted holding a bottle of Sparkling Ice Essence of Lemon Lime at the Moschino Candy Crush Dessert Party.”
Lady Gaga, who was Saturday’s headliner, drew criticism for using the final minutes of her show to tell the crowd her newest song was available on iTunes.
“How inspiring,” mocked L.A. Times critic Mikael Wood.
Jezebel.com called Coachella “an outer circle of hell.”
The festival mercifully concludes after next weekend.