How To Do Just About Everything
Of all the questions people ask about Coachella, most of them are ticket-related. You'd think it would be very simple, but there are actually a few ways to "officially" buy tickets for the Coachella Festival, and even more "unofficial" ways to buy them. Coachella differs from most other festivals in that you can purchase individual day tickets or a 3-day pass good for the entire festival. This is great for people who are only interested in seeing the bands playing on one day of the festival. *UPDATE: Individual day tickets for Saturday and Sunday (2007) are already sold out! As of this writing, there are still 3-day passes available, as well as individual day tickets for Friday. This is the earliest that any day has sold out in Coachella's history, and is probably due to the fact that Sunday's headliner is a reunited Rage Against the Machine. Another possible factor is that Goldenvoice is offering fewer individual day tickets in an attempt to sell more 3-day passes (but that is just speculation). **UPDATE #2: Three-day passes are now also "sold out". (tickets for Friday still available) However, don't give up hope of getting tickets. I'd bet that more tickets are released before the festival. As I said in Step #5 below, tickets have been available at the box office on the morning of the show, even on "sold out" days. Also, I believe a lot of the tickets were bought up by scalpers/brokers, trying to make a profit in the current "seller's market." But a couple days before the festival, that "seller's market" will become a "buyer's market" and you should be able to find tickets at a fair price if you know where to look. (StubHub, Craigslist, parking lot, etc)
TICKETMASTER. Coachella sells their tickets through Ticketmaster. Unfortunately, this means steep service charges are added to the total price of your ticket. A 3-day pass has a face value of $252, but $35.50 of additional Ticketmaster fees add up to a total of $287.50. A single day ticket is $86 + $20.20 additional fees = $106.20 total.
Ticketmaster is probably the safest, most reliable way to get tickets. If something happens to your ticket order, you do have a confirmation number, and can do something about it. You can buy them through the website, or just go to a local Ticketmaster Retail Location (Macy's, Wherehouse Music stores, etc)
THE GLASSHOUSE. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. You won't find this on the Coachella website... they do not advertise this fact, but there IS another way to "officially" buy tickets without bending over for Ticketmaster... and that's by going to The Glasshouse in Pomona, CA (about 25 miles east of LA).
The Glasshouse is a live music venue that Goldenvoice has worked a deal with for several years now, graciously giving Coachella fans in the LA area an alternative way to get tickets. But there are rules: They only sell 3-day passes (for a grand total of $265) and 4-day camping passes ($46 total). They do NOT sell individual day tickets. The Glasshouse box office hours are typically 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM daily. They only accept CASH... NO credit cards or checks! There is a limit on the number of tickets you can buy, and there are only a limited number of tickets allocated to the Glasshouse. You must buy the tickets in person, NO phone or online orders. And note that the Glasshouse box office is not located at the actual venue, but a few doors down at the Glasshouse Record Store, located at 248 W 2nd St, Pomona CA 91766. Their website is http://www.theglasshouse.us/
If you don't live near LA, but still want to buy tickets from the Glasshouse, you might be able to find a helpful LA resident willing to buy your ticket for you if you send them the money first. Search for these kind folk at http://www.coachella.com/forum/showthread.php?t=782
STUBHUB. StubHub.com is like eBay, but just for tickets. It's a good place to look for tickets for just about anything, especially music festivals like Coachella. StubHub has great customer service and guarantees your purchase, so if the person you're buying from fails to come through for some reason, they'll find you a ticket from somewhere else and you won't pay any extra. But that great service comes with a price - a 10% service fee. StubHub is a great place to check right before an event, because sometimes people who can't go at the last minute will sell off their tickets there. Personally, I never buy tickets for any event without monitoring prices on StubHub first.
*UPDATE eBay just announced that they are buying out StubHub. Hopefully this won't change StubHub's excellent customer service!
TICKET BROKERS/SCALPERS, ETC. There are a plethora of 3rd-party ticket sellers out there, some of them very reputable, others are shadier than Eminem. You gotta be careful when buying from ticket brokers. Every year there are a few horror stories of people who got suckered into buying counterfeit tickets, or people who thought they were buying festival tickets, but were actually buying on-site camping tickets. A simple Google search for "Coachella tickets" will help you find several of the bigger, more reputable brokers and resellers.
Other obvious places to look are eBay.com, Craigslist.org, etc. And of course there are the parking lot scalpers. Most of the parking lot scalpers are pros trying to milk as much money as they can from desperate buyers, only a few are fellow fans who are just trying to unload their extra tickets. Use extra caution and common sense when dealing with scalpers. If you're buying from scalpers on eBay, make sure they have a solid feedback history.
COACHELLA BOX OFFICE. Yes, there IS a box office there at the festival, where many people go to pick up tickets at will call, etc. And in years past, there have been some tickets available at the box office the day of the event, even when it had been "sold out." But don't count on that, especially this year! The box office opens at 9AM on each of the 3 days... if you've exhausted all other avenues of getting tickets, you might want to get there early when the box office opens to see if they've released any tickets at the last minute.
Comments
revisitingnixon said
on 4/3/2007 This is one helluva great tid bit.
MARCUS said
on 3/28/2007 one time i was at a show eight years ago. i was with two groups of people and i watched a couple meet for the first time. lock eyes...many years later and they are married. woohoo!
egodley said
on 3/22/2007 I totall agree
tanger said
on 3/22/2007 This is great advice! got my tix no problem
joc1981 said
on 2/15/2007 Is there a good chance of getting tickets on the day? As 3 of us are going to fly over from ireland to it. Can you email me @ joc_oconnor@hotmail.com the best sites for buying tickets as I have checked some sites and tickets are ranging form $750 up. Thanks John