Outdoor rock festivals: bigger, better than ever

By Chris Riemenschneider

Some fans plan their vacations around the music festivals.

It looked as if the demand for giant outdoor rock festivals went up in flames (literally) with Woodstock ’99, the fest that notoriously became known as three days of overflowing porta-potties, overpriced pizza and oversold campgrounds.

Behemoth rock festivals, however, quickly bounced back. There are more of them than ever nationwide now, from big-kahuna events such as Coachella and Bonnaroo to terrific copycats like Austin City Limits and Chicago’s revamp of Lollapalooza.

Several ambitious new rockathons are entering the landscape this summer, including All Points West in New Jersey and Outside Lands in San Francisco.

“The festivals themselves have gotten better and better, and fans have responded favorably,” said Charles Attal, co-founder of C3 Presents, which books Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits. Ticket sales for both were up this year, even before the lineups were announced, he said.

For a lot of 20- and 30-something fans, these outdoor events have become anchors to plan vacations around (and blow their savings on).

“It’s about the whole experience as much as it is the music,” said Kevin Jewitt, 31, a data analyst from Minneapolis who figures he spent about $1,000 to travel to Indio, Calif., for last year’s Coachella festival.

Tickets to Coachella start at $90 for a one-day pass and reach up to $269 for three days, comparable to most fests. Despite the cost, Jewitt not only plans to hit Coachella again this year, but also Lollapalooza.

“I think a lot of people go to [a festival] just to say they’ve done it,” he said, “and they wind up having so much fun they do it again and again while they still can, before they have families or too many other demands.”

Lollapalooza, in particular, has become a big draw for Midwestern fans because of its Chicago location. Originally a traveling, multiband concert like the Warped Tour, the event went out of business for several years before it was recast as a three-day destination in 2005. It now draws about 60,000 attendees per day.

“The atmosphere was great,” raved Drew Bryan, 21, a St. John’s University student from Eden Prairie, Minn., who attended Lolla last year and loved being “able to see tons of awesome bands and hang out with people who are all looking to have a good time.”

Bryan was able to shave his Lolla costs to about $400 by crashing at a friend’s house and taking the train into town. However, the trend at most major festivals is to actually go more high-end. For hefty prices, organizers are offering fans ways around the two big deterrents at these fests: enormous crowds and unpredictable weather (either sweltering heat or sheets of rain).

Bonnaroo, for instance, sells VIP packages for two people for $1,170, which includes upgraded showers, food buffets and bleacher seats for the music. Coachella now offers $700-$4,000 “premium camping” packages complete with airbeds and air-conditioned tents.

“The range of our clientele is expanding, and we want our events to be just as great an experience for the people who want a little more,” said Attal, whose Lollapalooza notoriously offered private “cabanas” for 30 to 40 people for $32,500.