The festival experience is one that should be enjoyed by everyone, especially those young enough to bounce out of a tent every morning after ingesting phenomenal amounts of intoxicants until the sun came up the night before. However, as with every kind of live music event, the prices of festivals is becoming so expensive that this year 60% of Coachella attendees ended up financing their ticket.
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Now, financing all sorts of things has become pretty commonplace these days. Everyone has seen the option to pay in installments for something like a doordash order. I expect that is why Coachella have jumped on the financing hype. Why pay the huge 600 to 650 dollar weekend ticket in one whack when you could put yourself in indentured servitude for the rest of the year instead.
With an initial down payment of $49, hopeful attendees could then pay off their ticket leading up to the festival. Defaulting wouldn't have a neon clad festival bouncer taking your car either. You simply lose your ticket and have the option to put the money paid towards the next year.
The financing option, of course, wasn't free. It cost an additional $41. Even paying for things costs money.
The Fault In Our Financing
Financing has been around for the longest time. The US economy is built around debts and loans. So, my problem isn't with financing despite the fact that I am a firm believer of never spending outside of your means. My problem is with the fact that it is making the egregious pricing of the tickets less visible.
By financing the tickets, Coachella have cleverly distracted from the fact that even a wristband for a weekend will cost more than $600. They have disguised their obscene prices by telling the festival hungry kids that it's not so bad. A few smallish payments feels a lot better than one huge one.
It's Called Enabling
The lineup for Coachella is pretty good this year, I'll give it that. But, the $600+ price tag is just obscene. Festivals, in their heyday, were a collection of crusty jugglers and stoned hippies with little more than their guitar and bag of weed to their name. Tickets were more of a formality than a greedy profit opportunity by a soulless corporation.
I remember being taken to festivals by my mother, who made her money as a children's illustrator. On her meagre income she took four of us to a festival year after year. Now, she would be spending three months wage even to get in the door, before food, transport, and all the rest.
The problem with tickets like Coachella, and artist tours (I'm looking at you Beyonce) is that they let other companies know that they can get away with it. As soon as someone like Coachella fills a festival with 60% of the attendees financing, others will follow suit. In no time at all, financing to see your favourite artist will be the norm.
There needs to be a boycot of these kinds of greedy practices. Before you know it, music, events, and festivals will be reserved for the elite. Who want's to be surrounded by a bunch of trust fund kids and Armani clad tech bros? I'd rather be anywhere else.
