“Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert” Offers a Taste of the Festival to Fans

Sandra Miska

If it were not for Covid-19, musical acts and artists from all over the world, along with thousands of fans, would be getting ready to descend upon Indio, CA to take part of the first weekend of the 2020 Coachella Music and Arts Festival. The festival may be presumably postponed until October, but organizers have found a way for people to enjoy a taste of Coachella in the meantime from the comfort of their own homes. Friday, April 10 at 12 p.m. PT, the exact time the gates were to open at the Empire Polo Club, “Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert” will be available to stream on YouTube.

Originally announced back in January before the inevitable postponement, this rock doc from producer/director Chris Perkel features rare footage, interviews, and performances from Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Travis Scott, Blackpink, LCD Soundsystem, Rage Against The Machine, Pixies, Swedish House Mafia, Jane’s Addiction, Björk, The White Stripes, Madonna, Moby, Beck, Radiohead, hologram Tupac, and, of course, Beyoncé.

“Everybody knows what Coachella is,” says Eilish over footage of her set from last year. “Even if you don’t care about music you know.” 

“20 Years in the Desert” also details Coachella’s relatively humble origins. It has come a long way since the inaugural festival in 1999, when Beck, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine served as headliners (the latter is set to return in 2020). Despite the big names that year and in the years that followed, the festival actually lost up to one million dollars in those early years and didn’t turn a profit until 2004. 

The doc will also discuss how Coachella has become more diverse throughout the years and how hip-hop and EDM came to be prominently featured alongside rock acts. “We wanted to tell this story that demonstrated the evolution of a festival and the ways in which that speaks to these other musical evolutions or cultural evolutions,” said Perkel in a recent interview with Billboard. “We not only have the opportunity to trace the history of the festival but it gives you the opportunity to pull these broader implications out of that history. You’re not just talking about the Sahara tent, you are talking about the evolution of electronic music.”

For the past decade, YouTube has served as the official playlist and livestream partner for both weekends of Coachella. Along with “Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert,” fans can also participate in what has been dubbed “Couchella” by watching selections from past performances on the official Coachella YouTube channel, as well as interviews and music videos.

“Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert” will be available to stream beginning April 10 at 12 p.m. PT on YouTube.