Gallery Celebrity - Remaining tickets for the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which expands to two weekends this year because of a quick sellout in 2011, were snapped up in three hours Friday.
The sellout of tickets available to the general public frustrated many people hoping to attend the festival at Indio’s Empire Polo Club from April 13-15 or 20-22.
“A lot of the acts that were playing on this, I’ve been following them for 15 to 20 years,” said Palm Springs resident Stephanie West, who tried unsuccessfully to buy a ticket for the festival’s second weekend. “The chance to see Radiohead, right in my backyard practically, was just like a dream come true.”
The College of the Desert student was among those who took to social networking sites to complain that although they logged on right when passes went on sale, they were stuck in the process until tickets were gone.
“This was supposed to (be) my graduation present to myself,” West wrote in response to the festival’s sellout announcement on Facebook. “Thanks for taking that away from me. On standby since 10am, and all I have to show for it is tears.”
West not only aimed to be at the front of the digital line and had multiple browser windows open Friday, but she also set up her account the day before as Coachella organizers suggested.
“I’m extremely bummed right now,” she said.
Similar frustration that arose after tickets to the 2011 festival sold out in six days led promoter Goldenvoice to plan two weekends with identical lineups this year.
Shortly after the two-weekend format was announced May 31, passes for the 2012 festival went on sale for a week.
Though the news that The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg would headline the festival was months away, summer sales were strong enough that organizers declared the first weekend’s least expensive passes sold out before tickets were offered again at 10 a.m. Friday.
The rest of the first-weekend passes available to the general public were gone within two hours, and about an hour later, second-weekend tickets also sold out.
Goldenvoice officials declined an interview request Friday, and a short statement sent to media outlets didn’t provide numbers on how many tickets were sold or when.
About 75,000 paid festival-goers are generally expected at Coachella each day.
Sellout aside, though, organizers have pledged to sell another 2,000 Coachella general admission passes — a thousand for each weekend — to east valley residents Jan. 28 at the Riverside County Fairgrounds.
A thousand passes to the Stagecoach country music festival, which sold out Jan. 6, are also slated to be available then.
West lives too far west to take advantage of that offer, but she hasn’t given up hope of finding a ticket.
“I’m gonna put out all my feelers,” she said Friday. “It’s only day one; I’ve got three months to go.”
West says she can’t afford to buy from a scalper and doesn’t trust Craigslist but will call friends, keep an eye out for contests and ask around campus.
“I have no shame. I will post it on a bulletin board if I have to,” she said. “It’s like a great big scavenger hunt.”
Source : http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120113/LIFESTYLES010102/120113001/Coachella-2012-sold-out-both-weekends
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