The reports of Coachella's death have been greatly exaggerated

INDIO, Calif. — I spent the last three days in dust-blown Indio walking tens of thousands of steps with tens of thousands of other people at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

It marked the 25th weekend I’ve done this as a journalist. Since 2007, I’ve reported on the festival’s growth as a pop culture touchstone, the expansion to twin weekends in 2012, the epic Beyoncé set in 2018 and the return after pandemic cancellations.

But Coachella, which has served as inspiration for dozens of other events around the country, has not yet sold out for this year’s second weekend, prompting some to ask if its long run as the premier taste-making U.S. festival is over.

Coachella, like many other things that have been around for decades (the first fest was in 1999), goes through up and down cycles. But nobody could look at the packed main field during the reunion of No Doubt on Saturday night and come to the conclusion that Coachella is dead.

The No Doubt set included a guest spot by Olivia Rodrigo — a nice bridge between the legacy and the now of pop music. Then, Tyler, the Creator followed with his most ambitious performance yet at the festival, “fighting with a giant sheep puppet onstage, getting ripped across the set in a fake windstorm, and toting A-list guests for a career-spanning set that proved his singular place in L.A. music history,” my colleague August Brown wrote. Doja Cat closed the show Sunday night.

That’s not to say this is the fully packed Bey-chella of 2018. Fridays are typically light, and this year looked more sparsely populated than usual. The festival grounds at the Empire Polo Club were significantly expanded, so everything has a little more breathing room, and fans were able to walk up close to see Lana Del Rey’s headlining set Friday night without getting crushed. I also noticed, compared to years past, far fewer influencer types with lighting rigs attached to their phones for content creation.

Goldenvoice, the promoter behind Coachella, did not respond to a request for attendance numbers during the first weekend, but in previous years the event has been permitted for 125,000 people.

And those attendees are forking over hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for their musical interlude in the desert.

Although Coachella has sold bottles of water for $2 throughout its history, that’s one of the few bargains you’ll find. A general admission pass for the second weekend runs $499 before fees, which appear to be $50. Then, you need to factor in the cost of a place to stay or camp, getting to the festival site and eating, drinking and buying souvenirs.

A group of attendees told me they paid $20 for three street-style carne asada tacos, $17 for a fresh-squeezed lemonade and $14 for a small cup of esquites. They also paid $100 for a Coachella blanket and $75 for a sweatshirt.

However, they plan to return to Coachella — which is an experience, from the fashion to the art to, of course, the music.

“A festival is going to be expensive regardless,” said Bianca Anaya, 20, a college student who traveled from Columbus, Ohio, to attend Coachella for the first time. She has traveled around the country in recent years to go to music festivals, including Bésame Mucho in Texas, Shaky Knees in Atlanta and Lollapalooza in Chicago.

Even as Coachella makes dents in bank accounts and spurs some to wonder if its pull is waning, others unearthed a bit of the old magic.

Danielle Dorsey, an assistant editor for The Times’ Food section who was part of our team at Coachella, wrote about her experience at Jon Batiste’s performance Saturday night. It “harks back to the early days of Coachella,” she said, “before any of us thought to capture the experience for the ’Gram and when it was just about letting ourselves be moved by the music.”

______