Coachella 2012 will be held over two consecutive weekends at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., according to organizers. The festival will "attempt to produce two identical weekends" with the same lineup, location and art installations.
The Coachella website cited its inability to accommodate demand last year and the rise of counterfeit tickets as the primary reasons behind its decision to expand to two weekends:
"
We know many of you were unable to attend this year's festival because passes sold out much sooner than anticipated. We were truly surprised by the overwhelming response and remain honored by your passion and enthusiasm. We also know some of you purchased through non-legitimate sources and were inconvenienced, gouged or totally scammed. We hope that these changes will give everyone the opportunity to purchase directly from Coachella.com."
Indeed last year's festival, which took place April 15 - 17, sold out in a week, forcing organizers of the event to post a notice that festival passes were "no longer available". That was followed by a tweet saying that "no, we don't have any passes left to release, kthxbye."
The price of three-day passes for 2012 (and for the sixth year in a row) will be $269 plus fees. Weekend passes go on sale beginning this Friday (June 3) at 10 a.m. PT and ending next Friday at 10 p.m. PT.
Thanks for the report to Billboard.com.
