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YouTube is live-streaming the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival starting at 6:30 p.m. EDT April 11, bringing music fans three days of music and live performances from a wide variety of bands at the gala in Indio, Calif.
The live-streaming of the event was announced by Brian Anderson and Craig McFadden of the YouTube Music team in an April 10 post on the YouTube Official Blog.
“Just because you can’t make it to the desert this weekend doesn’t mean you have to miss out; you can catch Coachella LIVE on YouTube presented by T-Mobile,” wrote Anderson and McFadden in their post. “For the fourth year in a row, the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will stream live from Indio, Calif. on Coachella’s official YouTube channel.”
The performances for the opening weekend run through April 13, featuring a full schedule of popular and trending musicians, starting tonight at 6:30 p.m. EDT with Flatbush Zombies on YouTube’s Channel 2, ZZ Ward on Channel 1 and Jagwar Ma on Channel 3. Bryan Ferry will perform at 12:55 a.m. EDT on April 12 on Channel 2, while popular band Outkast will take the stage at 2:30 a.m. April 12 on Channel 1.
Also on Saturday, Lorde will perform at 10:55 p.m. EDT on Channel 1, while the Preservation Hall Jazz Band from New Orleans will perform at 6:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 13, on Channel 2.
The live-streamed performances will include music from more than 70 acts, including Pharrell, The Replacements, Arcade Fire and Beck, wrote Anderson and McFadden. “And with three-hour late night blocks from EDM superstars like Skrillex, Martin Garrix, Zedd, Dillon Francis, Duck Sauce and more, your party can keep going well into the night.”
Also being featured during this year’s YouTube live streams will be live backstage Google+ Hangout appearances by many of the performers at the show, including Chvrches, Zedd and other artists, according to Anderson and McFadden. “Check the schedule on the Coachella YouTube channel for artist meet-and-greets. Start a Hangout with friends, and when the time comes, it may bring you face-to-face backstage and directly into the Coachella webcast!”
The Coachella festival is being held over two weekends at the Empire Polo Club, where tickets have been sold out for quite a while. First held in 1999, tickets for this year’s event were priced at $375 each. VIP admission was $799 each weekend plus $150 for VIP parking each weekend. The festival will continue the following weekend, April 18 to 20, but won’t be live-streamed.