Coachella music festival joins ranks of the world's best

NEW YORK (Coachella Festival Website) - The success of the weekend's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was a testament to the strength of today's alternative music scene, a scene that continues to flourish just off the mainstream music-buying public's radar.

Established acts such as Radiohead and The Cure, bands whose hard work and persistence have earned them more than a taste of mainstream success, yet whose innovative spirit has allowed them to retain their indie credibility, shared billing with talented upstarts hailed as rock's saviors by music scribes and whose names have occupied the top spots in every rock journal's "best of" lists, along with a handpicked smattering of the global music scene's newest superstars - the DJs.

The annual weekend-long celebration of music culture, now in its fifth year, drew capacity crowds both days.
More than 100,000 music lovers (50,000 each day) flocked to this interim epicenter of new music to see acts ranging from alternative-rock rulers to lesser-known acts, including The Flaming Lips, Junior Senior, The Crystal Method, Kinky, Basement Jaxx, and The Pixies.

Those lucky enough to score coveted access to the VIP/press area mingled under the shade of a large complex of Moroccan-style tents and rubbed shoulders with some of the artists and a who's who of young Hollywood, celebrities such as Giovanni Ribisi and Casey Affleck (Cameron Diaz and Kelly Osbourne are also said to be Coachella regulars), whose famous faces regularly grace the pages of the entertainment magazines and supermarket tabloids.

While headliners Radiohead and The Cure are used to playing for massive crowds (after all, the open-air music festival was practically invented in their native U.K.), festivals such as Coachella have proven to be a bit overwhelming for younger bands used to playing in smaller theaters and nightclubs.
But the bands on this year's lineup all said they welcomed the challenges that playing for 50,000 people might present.