What Do Coachella Tickets Cost? You Won’t Believe How Much People Pay to Go to the Festival

The 2019 Coachella Music & Arts Festival starts April 12, and the celebrities and Instagram influencers are descending on the California desert to party and see performances from Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, Janelle Monáe, Kanye West’s Sunday Service and many, many more. And if you don’t yet have tickets, there’s still time to get in on the action. Provided you have a lot of cash to spare, that is.

A festival pass is $429

While passes for Coachella’s first weekend are already sold out, you can still snag one for weekend No. 2, which runs from April 19-21. A pass costs $429 and gives you entrance to the Empire Polo Club for three days. You can also get a pass with shuttle transportation for $509, or a VIP pass for $999, which also gets you access to VIP areas with specialty food and drink, air-conditioned restrooms, and shaded seating areas.

The actually cost of attending is much higher

Spending $429 for a three-day concert with some of the biggest names in music may not seem outrageous, but the actual cost of attending the festival is much higher once you factor in all the extra expenses.

Once you have your pass, you’ll need to pay for lodging (unless you happen to live near the festival grounds), transportation, and food. One writer for Business Insider who planned a last-minute trip to the festival ended up spending more than $2,000 once she shelled out for airfare, a rental car, and an Airbnb — and that didn’t include the cost of a pass itself, since she got free admission as a member of the press.

That’s about in line with what Money estimated attending Coachella in 2018 would cost. The publication pegged the total cost at $2,347 once you paid for a hotel, flight to LAX, a shuttle to the festival grounds from the airport, and food and booze. To save, you could opt for car or tent camping, which cost $125 for the weekend.

You could spend almost $10,000 on a luxury experience

Spending a couple grand will allow you to experience Coachella like an average joe, but what if you want a truly luxury weekend? If that’s your goal, you could drop $9,500 on a safari tent for two people, which includes perks like golf cart transportation between different stages, private parking, and breakfast, plus festival admission. (You can add up to two additional guests to your tent for $2,500 per person.) Teepee camping starts at $2,458 for two.

If camping (or glamping) doesn’t sound like much fun, then you can book a hotel travel package, which includes a multi-night stay at a local resort, plus festival admission and transportation. A three-night VIP stay for two at the JW Marriott Desert Springs would set you back nearly $4,500, for example.  

You can also add on various extras to take your Coachella experience to the next level. A full-course meal crafted by celebrated chefs in the VIP Rose Garden costs $225, while preferred parking is $150.

Does all that sound like too much to spend on a weekend partying in the desert (where temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s this weekend)? Well, you don’t have to miss out entirely if you don’t have that kind of cash. You can live stream select live performances on the Coachella YouTube page — for free.

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