Business

Coachella’s young audience a marketers paradise

By Sandy Cohen
Published April 19, 2014 3:24pm ET
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Coachella’s young audience a marketers paradise
FILE - In this Sunday, April 13, 2014 file photo, Coachella festival goers Justin Gibbs and Olivia Hansen of Los Angeles relax on the Empire Polo Field during the third day of the 2014 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. The Coachella crowd may be there to listen to music under the hot desert sun, but the retailers are there for the celebs and the crowd, which is young, hip and with money to spend. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, file) | Chris Pizzello

INDIO, Calif. (AP) — When it first started in 1999, Coachella was a couple of stages and a dance tent. Tickets were $65. A few dusty stands sold hot dogs and Cokes. It was the end of grunge and the start of a new millennium, and it was all about the music. All for one weekend.

Now, tickets start at $375. Gourmet menus and VIP packages abound. And dozens of companies have hopped on the Coachella bandwagon, turning the music festival — now two back-to-back weekends — into a marketing hotspot. Adidas, Details magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and Lacoste are just some of the brands that host offsite festival events for stylish celebrity guests.

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