Coachella Festival 2003 Review

United States | by Craig Arthur | 27 April 2003

Now in its 4th year, California's Coachella Music & Arts Festival has become the unofficial kick-off to the summer music festival season - the only thing close to a European style festival America has!

About a 3 hour drive from Los Angeles, the town of Coachella (population 22,206) seems to pop up out of nowhere... truly an oasis in the desert. For one weekend every year this small town's population triples in size, and it becomes the music capitol of North America, if not the world.

Situated atop a well tended to polo field lined with palm trees, it is almost a pleasurable experience hiking to and from the various stages, art exhibits and vendors, with soft green grass always underfoot.

With all of the stages so spread out however, the weekend would be filled with tough choices. For example, do you leave the Beastie Boys set early on the Coachella (main) stage, to catch the American debut of the Libertines in the Mojave tent? (This would later go down as a bad choice since the Libertines were unplugged two songs into their set).

Thank god for the event organisers who (barring sound problems) did an incredible job of keeping to the schedule, making the decision process considerably easier.

Coachella 2003 Reviews: