The dust has settled on the inaugural Desert Trip, aka ‘Oldchella,’ and with a reported gross of over $130 million, the festival will go down in the history books as the highest-grossing festival of all time. By comparison, the previous record was $84 million in gross revenue achieved at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2016, put on by the same producing team of Goldenvoice and AEG Live, and held at the same spot in the Southern California desert.
An estimated 220,000 fans poured into Empire Polo Club, Indio, Calif., 75,000 each day, over the two consecutive weekends, Oct. 8-9 and Oct. 15-16, to watch legends like Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones play. While Desert Trip producers have yet to confirm it, surely there will be a Desert Trip 2.
“It went amazingly well,” said Alexander Haagen III, owner and president, Empire Polo Club. “Especially for a new event. We were very pleased.”
“When are you ever going to get to see the Rolling Stones, The Who and Paul McCartney on the same bill?” asked Haagen. “It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime event in that way. Add in (Bob) Dylan, (Roger) Waters and (Neil) Young and it’s the Hall of Fame of Rock playing at one show.”
“Boomers are a generation that have been under-indexed in the concert market,” said David Bakula, vice president of analytics and client development at Neilson Entertainment. “If an older audience is drawn to an event they aren’t necessarily put off by a high ticket price point.”
“That group of music listeners has been traditionally underserved,” he said. “They love how music helps them remember the past and unlike the younger generations they will not let finances stop them from attending.”
Preparing the property cost $4 million. “We did a lot of structural work to get the venue ready for Desert Trip,” Haagen said. “It took four months.”
Surprisingly, Haagen said that Desert Trip, with an older crowd that many assumed would need more hand holding and amenities, was actually easier to produce than Coachella. “The folks were very easy to deal with,” said Haagen. “A lot of attention was put to understanding that the crowd was a little older and we needed creature comforts like air conditioners.”
Goldenvoice exceeded expectations making it comfortable for the people who came, he said. “I expected a lot more issues we’d need to learn from, resolve and fix,” said Haagen. “We have some bugs to work out for the next one, but with its complexity and flushing toilets, grandstands, boxes and upscale food services we did pretty well.”
Well, indeed. Gourmet food packages were available, such as the “wine and food experience featuring a program of wineries crafted by a world renowned sommelier” for $179 and a “fine dining experience” for $225. “My chef was Wolfgang Puck,” said Haagen.
One sample gourmet meal started with big eye tuna crudo and smoked eggplant as the appetizer; an heirloom tomato and fingerling salad with olive & pistachio pesto and sweet onion and olive oil poached cod as the entree. Another started with maltagliati pasta and porcini mushrooms with dandelion greens followed by porchetta, white bean purée, apricot mostarda and arugula .
The talent budget was enormous. The three headliners — Dylan, McCartney and The Rolling Stones — each cost a reported $2 million alone. The average age of the acts on stage was 72. The average audience member was 51, significantly higher than an average Coachella customer and made up mostly of Baby Boomers.
It’s not just the eye-popping gross that could make a Desert Trip-style event the new model for future festivals. Desert Trip was not a traditional music festival with a day-stage lineup followed by the money acts at night. Nearly 160 acts played on multiple stages at the 2016 Coachella. Desert Trip’s only artists were the six headliners and the shows did not start until 6:15 p.m. “The line-up and start time was distinctly different from any other music festival where there are usually 12-hours of entertainment featuring dozens of acts,” said Haagen.
Tickets cost $199 for a single day gate entrance with no-seat; a three-day general admission standing-only ticket was $399. There were 35,000 seats, with prices starting at $599 and going as high as $999. “There were captain-style seats on the ground and grandstands that were built just for Desert Trip,” said Haagen.
A weekend pass went as high as $1,599. “Those were either in the standing pit right in front of the stage or in the P1 level seats,” he said. Some VIP packages with the best access cost more than $3,000.
One issue Haagen pointed out that definitely needed attention was the ingress and egress of the fans and parking. “It’s difficult to get 75,000 people out of one location at a time,” Haagen admitted. “The fans had to park miles away from the Empire Polo Club and we used shuttle buses to get the fans to the fairgrounds. It wasn’t as successful or fluid as we hoped.”
After the event, Haagen and Goldenvoice put together an after-action report to help determine what went right and more importantly, what went wrong. What could be improved? “Better parking, closer parking, getting people in and out easier,” he said. “We’re already working with the county on widening roads and better traffic control.”
Haagen also said that his company is continuing to buy more land around Empire Polo Club and adding more trams. He also wants a better plan for more shade. “It can get pretty warm, even at night,” he said. “Planning the concerts all for evening events helped tremendously. It cools down at night. But we need a plan in case it gets too hot.”
Haagen was proud of the state of his facility and its unique position as the “world’s greatest festival space. There’s no other venue in the world that has the facilities Empire Polo Club has. Our delay towers and fiber optics are state-of-the-art so the music is there instantaneously. There’s no blasting of music; it’s spread out evenly over the grounds.”
Haagen said the on-stage video screen, 40 ft. high by 200 ft. wide, added a lot but that if there is another Desert Trip he would make the screen even bigger.
Other improvements would be faster food service. Overall, Haagen said, there were very few problems; only a handful of arrests and everyone felt safe and comfortable.
“If there is a number two there will be no dramatic changes, just tweaks,” he said.
“We’re surveying the concert goers now to see what they think.”
One issue that will definitely play a part in the decision to hold a second Desert Trip, and whether it will be a one weekend event or a two weekend event, was the way ticketing was handled the first time around.
After tickets for the first weekend were gobbled up immediately after they went on sale, Goldenvoice added a second weekend. Sales for the second weekend were not as strong with many of those tickets going to the secondary market for resale at less than face value. While this did not affect the Goldenvoice gross, it will impact their decision about Desert Trip 2 and whether it will be a two-weekend event.
“The success of Desert Trip proves there is an audience for a festival featuring heavily established acts and that there is no limit for how much the fans will pay for the experience,” said Bakula. “It would not surprise me at all to see this repeated, either in other cities or with a new set of old-timers. This event has changed how the industry views festivals.”
Interviewed for this story: Alexander Haagen III, (760) 342-2762; Lindsay Lyons, (323) 930-7174; David Bakula, (323) 860-4608