Coachella 2012 was an interesting one.  First off, we're still not done with it.  There's going to be a "identical" weekend 2 coming up tomorrow which is just an odd idea.  Secondly, I actually had phone service for the first time ever so I was able to send out some random thoughts while I was there (collected for your enjoyment below).  This was also the first time it's ever rained at a Coachella, it's notorious for being VERY dry and hot all day.  In any case, enjoy!

Note:  It's in reverse cronological order so read it from the bottom up.

I talked to my friend Brian today and he lives up in the north west so his festival of choice is Sasquatch while mine is Coachella (I live in southern California).  And he told me that Sasquatch is only going to sell 4-day passes.  Honestly it's kinda sad to see that this is becoming a "thing".  Coachella did this years ago and it sucks for the people that really want to enjoy the festival but can't commit to the whole thing.  And I gotta admit, a day or two of Coachella is all you really need.  Three full days is a little much (I'm an old guy now).  I can't even imagine FOUR days of Sasquatch.

I understand that at the end of the day it's just a business, but there's no reason to exclude a minority of fans that can't do it.  What I don't understand is the lame excuse, "there's such a high demand for tickets so we'll only sell 4-day passes".  It just translates to me as, "We can force people to pay $300+ for tickets, so why would we bother to accommodate the people that can only go one or two days?"  This year's Coachella is in such a high demand that they booked two full weekends of identical bands and sold them both out.

So as the demand increases it's just going to push the more casual fan out.  I know people really love the festival (I really do), but there are clear benefits of living in a major town with no festival scene.  At least then you have a fighting chance of seeing only the bands that you want to see and not have to put up with parking, dickheads, heat just to see Gotye.