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Economy Not Slowing Down Coachella (But Tix Still Available)

If you thought the economic doldrums meant you'd have more elbow room at this weekend's pricey Coachella Music Festival, think again.

While some smaller music festivals have had to throw in the towel this year, giant events like Coachella appear to be doing just fine, thank you very much. Organizers report the 10th annual desert party is selling "almost neck and neck with last year," and is expected to draw somewhere between 135,000 and 150,000 music lovers.

At the moment, 3-day passes ($269) as well as individual tickets for each day ($99) are all still available. The Killers and The Cure headline with a special appearance by Leonard Cohen and Paul McCartney's first stateside festival concert ever.

Related Stories:
· Festival producers optimistic despite recession [Reuters]
· Coachella [Official Site]
· Coachella Offers Big Bands But With a Bigger Price Tag [Jaunted]

[Photo: Coachella]

Music Festivals / Music Travel / Coachella / iPhone / iPhone Applications / → All Tags

Coachella iPhone App Promises Less Running from Stage to Stage

Spring's biggest (and priciest) music festival, Coachella is just around the corner, so all you rock-heads better be almost finished paying off that lay-away ticket plan. The three-day concert starts April 17.

As we've mentioned, $270 tickets are our least favorite thing about giant music festivals, but our second-least favorite thing is figuring out where the heck to be at all times. "Can I catch the Killers on the mainstage when M.I.A. is just finishing on stage two?" "Is it worth abandoning my sweet spot near the front?" "How do I know when sets are actually going to start?"

So we're pretty impressed with Coachella's new iPhone application, which puts all the info right in your palm—no more asking peeved security guards what time the Cure really goes on. In addition to interactive festival maps and a concert photo uploader, the app will have an updated set schedule with a 'Coachooser,' so you can put together your own lineup and hit all the important stops.

Related Stories:
· Coachella iPhone Application [Official Site]
· Coachella Offers Big Bands But With a Bigger Price Tag [Jaunted]
· Music festivals coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Caesar Sebastian]

What Recession? / Music Festivals / Music Travel / Coachella / → All Tags

Coachella Offers Big Bands But With a Bigger Price Tag

Music festivals may be falling left and right this year, but rock's biggest Spring fling—Coachella—is still going strong, with an impressive and diverse lineup of big names.

Paul McCartney, the Killers, and the Cure are headlining the April 17 to 19 fest in Indio, Calif., while the rest of the lineup is packed with dozens of indie favs like Beirut, TV on the Radio and Peter Bjorn, along with a scattering of hip-hoppers—Lupe Fiasco, Clipse and People Under the Stairs.

Troubled diva Amy Winehouse, as we mentioned, had to cancel.

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Celeb Travel / Music Festival Travel / Amy Winehouse / Coachella / → All Tags

Amy Winehouse Still Not Approved for Travel to the U.S.

Last week we wrote about a man who was unsuccessfully trying to get into the U.K.; now we've found the person whose place he could take, if immigration worked like that. Having only recently returned home from Jamaica, Amy Winehouse is trying desperately to get out again -- but as with the '08 Grammys, she won't be getting into America so easily.

Winehouse's problem is not the rumors of drug use nor her connection to potentially-soon-to-be-ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who was recently released from prison. Rather, the retro-fantastic singer was charged with assault after allegedly hitting a fan who snapped a picture of her, and will have to appear in court next week. No visa means no performance at California's trumpeted Coachella festival next month, where sun-drenched music lovers will have to content themselves with other acts like Morrissey and the Killers.

Having seen Winehouse in a festival setting similar to Coachella's in 2007, it's perhaps not the best venue to see her in -- but since she doesn't seem to be doing any cabaret tours, we'd say she is worth the ticket price in all her wackiness. Worth traveling for? Well, that's another story.

Related Stories:
· Amy Winehouse Drops Out Of Coachella Festival [NY Times ArtsBeat]
· In Britain, A Struggle To Prove You're "Just Visiting" [Jaunted]
· Amy Winehouse denied entry to America... again [Celebitchy]

[Photo: Telegraph.co.uk]

Celeb Travel / Nicole Richie / Joel Madden / Coachella / Music Travel / → All Tags

Music Travel: Coachella Star Report

Music lovers endure the desert conditions at Coachella festival every year to see acts like Prince and Portishead perform long, sunny sets. Celebrities probably go there for more of the same, with the option of waltzing into the VIP tents when things get too steamy. (Scarlett Johansson even sang there last year, with The Jesus and Mary Chain.)

Joel and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte weren't performing, but they both brought girlfriends Nicole Richie (with 3-month-old daughter Harlow) and Paris Hilton to Palm Springs for the weekend. (If anyone knows what the hell Joel and Nicole are doing in this photo, please let us know!)

Kelly Osborne queued up to see Kraftwerk, and Sean Penn eschewed the VIP section. And '90s star Rosanna Arquette caught '90s indie rockers the Breeders.

Related Stories:
· Scarlett Johansson Sings, Parking Delays Sting [Jaunted]
· Coachella Hotels [HotelChatter]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Celebrity-Gossip.net]

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Coachella Post-Mortem: Scarlett Johansson Sings, Parking Delays Sting

The 2007 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the giant Indio California music festival featuring everyone from Rage Against the Machine to Willie Nelson, went off with plenty of hitches this past weekend.

While Scarlett Johansson (who joined the Jesus and Mary Chain to badly sing the chorus of "Just Like Honey"--according to reports), Drew Barrymore, and Lindsay Lohan were all spotted amongst campers and concert-goers this past weekend, the real question for those considering road tripping to this festival in the future is where are the bottlenecks?

After listening to tipsters and surfing the message boards here are our quick and dirty post-Coachella tips:

·  Take half the 200 or so daytime parking staff workers and have them direct exit traffic.  This was the worst thing ever.  Yes, worse than the Silversun Pickups' set and mid song banter.  After two hours of bedlam, an attendee finally showed up to direct traffic.

·  Double the number of Female pat down/bag check lines--this should not be a hard job to fill.

·  Will Call is a mess.  Avoid it at all costs.

· If you are considering going to the festival alone, go for it. There is a popular Onsite-Camping-All-Alone-Club, which starts up on the Coachella message boards months before the festival.

· Those looking for a camping alternative should try Palm Spring hotels like the Desert Moon Resort, where rooms were available as late as last Friday night.

Parking and traffic issues are going to happen when an estimated 180,000 people attended a music festival.  In general, police reported few problems, and most festival attendees felt the weekend was extremely well organized, aside from the parking issues.

[Photo: exlposive laugher, maggiejumps]

Related Stories:
· Festivals [Jaunted]
· Coachella Map [coachellamap.com]

Live Music / Festivals / Coachella / → All Tags

Get Your Coachella Hotel Rooms Now

If you're planning a trip to Coachella and don't want to go the camping route, you'd best reserve that overpriced hotel room soon. Rooms around the festival book up fast before the eventual disaster ensues, in which fans desperate to avoid the campsite heat scramble for alternatives. Coachella recommends Southwestrooms.com for booking, and we pulled up a $179-a-night motel rate there for the "Deluxe Inn." Coachella also recommends calling Desert Hotel Reservations. Competition is fiercest for cheap hotels in Indio. You might have better luck 25 miles away in Palm Springs, where a still-open room at the Ramada is going for $260 a night, and bars for partying in are more plentiful.

A complimentary internet cafe is planned for the camping area this year, so perhaps that could draw you in. At $45 for a three-day permit, the camping fee with included internet access is just about equal to the highest of reported European hotel WiFi charges. But there's no air conditioning in camping.

As far as airports at which to spot celebrities, Palm Springs International Airport is your best bet--it's the closest to the festival. Ontario Airport is further away, but also has the benefit of JetBlue service, and those new flights from ExpressJet Airlines, which will be starting in early April, just in time for the party.

[Photo: the LOCAL]

Related Stories:
· Coachella [Official Site]
· ExpressJet to Ontario Airport [Jaunted]