Hanging out in the middle of the desert listening to EDM with a bunch of drugged out young people not your thing? Well how about hanging out in the middle of the desert listening to "Satisfaction" with a bunch of drugged out old people? The second scenario is what festival promoter Goldenvoice has in mind for a new classic rock fest it wants to launch in October at the Empire Polo Field. That’s the venue that houses Goldenvoice’s Coachella festival, bleeding the pockets of cash-strapped millennials both this weekend and the next.
The LA Times reports that the proposed lineup for the new festival includes aging icons Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Neil Young, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. It’s an impressive list of names that would have drawn a crowd to Indio fifty years ago. "You won’t get a chance to see a bill like this, perhaps ever again," Young’s manager Elliot Roberts told the Times, seemingly acknowledging the advanced age of the stars.
A festival of this kind could pay off big time for Goldenvoice. Baby boomers, as it turns out, are still buying a whole lot of concert tickets. Last year’s list of the 20 highest grossing concert tours included classic rock staples like Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, and—raking in more than $130 million—the Rolling Stones. The only question is whether this more senior generation will be willing to put up with all the traffic jams, sun burns, and general insanity that come with having an outdoor concert in the Colorado Desert. Then again, this new festival will probably feature all the absurdly luxurious amenities that Coachella now boasts--so that those wealthy enough can enjoy their favorite anti-establishment anthems in style.
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