Last month saw the Empire Polo Club once again host one of the world’s most famous and celebrated music festivals: Coachella. To perform at the festival is often seen as an indicator of a long career ahead and to headline is seen as a reward for an accompanied career. This year saw Mother Monster — Lady Gaga herself — become the second woman to headline twice, with her marathon two-hour set gaining international acclaim.
Music festivals such as Coachella have become symbols of culture, with many cities and countries taking pride in hosting these music spectaculars. Many music festivals support local economies, with festival goers needing transport, accommodation and food. Festivals also offer the opportunity for audiences to see artists that may not have been able to come to their city or country in a solo tour. Additionally, festivals can be seen as a cheaper alternative than solo shows, seeing more artists for a cheaper price.
Going back to Lady Gaga, her upcoming international Mayhem Tour has tickets ranging from $200 to $9,000. To see both her and all the other over 100 artists at Coachella would have cost you around $600. But there is another, sometimes overlooked, yet important aspect of music festivals — staging upcoming and emerging acts.
While the draw card for most festivals are the headliners, many of the smaller, mostly local bands that start the day off arguably need the exposure and revenue from music festivals much more than the larger acts. So, while ticket prices surge and many festivals become more and more inaccessible, it might be important to remind people of the benefits of staging and attending the local acts at their next festival adventure.
Coco Elise are a bedroom pop duo from Perth, Australia that, after their formation in 2022, have performed at several festivals both small and large — most notably Perth’s Hyper Festival in 2024. Isaiah Quintana, one half of Coco Elise, talked about his personal experience performing at festivals as an independent act, highlighting how festivals give the opportunity to “play in front of people that might not be your usual demographic.”
For emerging artists festivals are also another way to grow your resume and, according to Quintana, “Everyone likes to see that you’ve done a festival or two.” This exposure and opportunity isn’t always a fairytale for independent bands though, “Depending on where you are on the bill it may not be the biggest payday,” explains Quintana. Touring festivals cost artists money and many smaller bands might have to sacrifice a bit of their show to make ends meet.
It’s these forfeits that local artists have to make in order to perform at festivals, which can already be difficult enough to book. Initiatives to stage local bands at large festivals, such as this year’s collaboration between Triple J and Laneway Festival to stage emerging Australian artists, do make the opportunity more accessible. Yet, most festivals are almost impossible to book for independent artists.
For Coco Elise, networking helps in trying to get booked and understanding that when you may not have a large catalogue of music, you may just simply not get booked. For smaller bands, playing at festivals offer the rare opportunity to grow your listening base at once but this opportunity is often hard to take a hold of.
The culture of festivals have also changed significantly with the shift to social media and streaming platforms for publicity prior to the event. Spotify often partners with larger music festivals to create official playlists with a mix of songs from the festivals lineup. If you’re heading to Glastonbury this year, you’ll find the “Glastonbury 2025” playlist with songs from all acts on the streaming service. While the 25-hour playlist features Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan, audiences can also stumble upon DJs performing in The Glade Line-Up, a stage in Glastonbury dedicated to electronic music arts.
These playlists give festival goers a chance to familiarize themselves with the lineup, but also give another chance for smaller artists to be saved on personal playlists and saved songs. While the royalties from streaming may be small, getting on popular playlists are important to the growth of artists and help artists become easier to find after their time on stage.
So, while the headliners may be the reason you bought your ticket and packed your camping gear, might I suggest that you take some time to try out and listen to the artists in the fine print of the poster both before and during the festival. You may be the reason they make ends meet and they may be the reason you find a new favorite artist.
Keep up with Coco Elise: Instagram // TikTok // Facebook // Spotify
