Coachella could be fined thousands every time performers break golden rule
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: C Flanigan/FilmMagic
The organizers of Coachella might be fined thousands of dollars if festival performers break this golden rule.
This year's highly anticipated music festival's dates are running April 10-12 and April 17-19, and it's safe to say that (as usual) there's a pretty impressive lineup.
The likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Teddy Swims will be performing on the first night and April 17, while Justin Bieber, Addison Rae, and Sombr will take to the stage on April 11 and 18th.
Young Thug, Karol G, Wet Leg, and FKA Twigs will then perform on April 12 and the final night, April 19.
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Should any of the above artists go past curfew though, then it'll leave Goldenvoice – the organizers of Coachella – paying the price.
Why? It's all to do with curfews and licensing.
There are no all-night raves here, at least not officially, as the festival has a noise curfew of 1.00am on Friday and Saturday, while Sunday night shows must end by 12.00am.
There are very strict rules around what happens if this is broken, with the festival receiving hefty fines if an artist goes over this time slot.
In 2023, this agreement stated that the festival must pay a penalty of $20,000 for going past curfew by five minutes each day.
Then for every minute they go on after that, they have to pay a further $1,000.
You can see how this can quickly become rather expensive, for example when musician Frank Ocean went over by some 25 minutes.
More recently, Coachella has to pay out another $20,000 last year to the City of Indio, California, after Travis Scott's set went past curfew by several minutes, Billboard reported.
The 'Goosebumps' rapper is said to have started his performance late and ended late as a result.
In a statement to the news outlet, the City of Indio confirmed that the curfew fine issued because of Scott was the only dished out at the 2025 festival.
One of the most expensive years on record for Goldenvoice was 2023. As well as Frank Ocean's set running over, Bad Bunny, the Weeknd, Skrillex, Fred Again, and Four Tet did, resulting in the festival racking up an eye-watering $168,000 in fines.
Arguably this is just a drop in the ocean for Coachella's organizers though as it's reported that the festival can profit as much as $114 million across both weekends (a milestone it first achieved in 2017, per the Grammy Awards).