LOS ANGELES — More than 100,000 people are expected to descend on Indio, Calif., starting today for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and the fashion world will be watching. While Arcade Fire and Kings of Leon are jamming onstage, fashion and lifestyle companies will be vying for the attention of festival-goers offstage, with branded cooling tents, beach balls, Coachella “survival kits” at the Empire Polo Club grounds, plus pool parties with bottomless cocktails and their own live music at hotels and estates offsite.
In 12 years, the three-day spring break for adults has become a branding juggernaut approaching Sundance Film Festival proportions. At Sundance, gift lounges dominate the freebie scene, but at Coachella, brands want to reach a wider audience of “influencers” with events such as the G by Guess Artist Retreat Pool Party and BBQ, the A/X + 944 Neon Carnival, the Mulberry BBQ & Pool Party and the fourth-annual Jeremy Scott + Adidas Shindig.
Brands send clothes to celebrities ahead of time in hopes they will be photographed wearing them, distribute promotional items, and sponsor social events with the goal of generating traditional and social media coverage, and, eventually, sales. At the same time, design teams are there, studying the way festival-goers dress so they can turn ideas around and sell them next year.
Enticed by indie
All this has developed around a festival initially conceived as an alternative to corporatized live music experiences with high ticket prices. And it is the idea of that indie spirit that makes Coachella so attractive to fashion brands such as H&M, Lacoste, Levi’s, Havaianas and Ray-Ban. (Ironically, the festival itself has evolved into a rather pricey event where guests must pay $269 for three-day tickets — no more day passes — and they must move quickly; tickets sell out in a matter of hours.)