Coachella is now selling lifetime guest passes in the form of NFTs

Original author: Eric Dunne

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After a two-year unpredictable hiatus, the Coachella festival is coming back in 2022. The festival has grabbed headlines as it is venturing into crypto market. For the first time, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will sell lifetime guest passes in the form of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called the Coachella Keys Collection.

According to the head of Innovation for Coachella, Mr. Sam Schoonover, “we’ve all seen how NFTs enable true ownership of art and media on the Internet,” in a similar context “we (also) wanted to take it one step further and use NFTs to enable ownership of experiences in the real world, too.”

He further added, “Only blockchain technology can give us the unique ability to offer tradable lifetime passes to Coachella for the first time ever. We’re excited about building new utility and community for our fans with NFTs, and in FTX we found the partner that we trust to provide us with infrastructure and support to help us usher in this new frontier.”

What is Coachella?

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (also known as Coachella or the Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Colorado Desert’s Coachella Valley. It is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents, and was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999.

Musical performers from a variety of genres, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop, and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures, will perform during the event. Several stages across the grounds offer live music on a continuous basis.

Coachella features well-known and renowned musicians, as well as newcomers and reunited ensembles. It is one of the world’s largest, most well-known and financially successful music events. Each Coachella festival held between 2013 and 2015 set new attendance and revenue records.

The 2017 event drew 250,000 people and generated $114.6 million in revenue. Due to the success of Coachella, Goldenvoice added several music festivals to the venue, including the annual Stagecoach country music festival, which began in 2007, the Big 4 thrash metal festival in 2011, and the classic rock-oriented Desert Trip in 2016.

Coachella’s early success demonstrated that American music festivals could function and prosper in a destination format rather than as a touring festival. Many other festivals have followed in Coachella’s footsteps in the years after its debut, emulating its style as a destination festival with many stages, attractions, art, and camping.

What all Coachella NFTs can you own?

A total of ten tokens will be auctioned off, with prizes including annual passes to the festival and VIP experiences in 2022, including front-row seats at the Coachella Stage, on-stage access at the Sahara Tent, and a celebrity chef dinner at the Rose Garden.

The 2022 edition of the Coachella festival to be held In April will have a star-studded lineup with headliners such as Billie Eilish, Kanye West, Harry Styles, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Big Sean, Baby Keem, and more.

Coachella is also offering two NFT collections, which include digital artefacts as well as real posters and photo books, through the FTX.US crypto market platform, on top of the Coachella Keys Auction, which begins on February 4th.

The Sights & Sounds Collection (priced at $60) contains 10,000 items, each of which includes 10 digital festival photographs and a physical print of one of the 10. The Desert Reflection Collection (priced at $180 is limited to 1,000 NFTs and includes one of ten digital renderings of a Coachella poster by Emek as well as a copy of the photo book “Coachella | The Photographs 1999-2019.”

While the NFTs are priced modestly, you can have a look at the list of most expensive NFTs of all time.

Where can you buy these Coachella lifetime passes NFTs?

This auction of lifetime passes shall take place over the FTX.US platform. The auction for this collection begins February 4th at 10am PT and will last for one week with USD 200,000 as decided floor price. FTX US is a reliable platform to buy and trade NFTs, Stocks and Cryptocurrencies with added features such as an FTX Card to purchase items using crypto.

Another interesting fact to keep in mind for this Coachella 10 lifetime passes auction is that while Ethereum is currently the leading platform for NFT collectibles this NFT is based on Solana. Solana has multiple reasons for its growing and widespread adoption making it a viable alternative. Some of these differentiating factors are speedier transactions, lower fees, and lesser environmental impact.

Citing these reasons, the head of Innovation for Coachella, Mr. Sam Schoonover chose Solana over Ethereum particularly for buyers who may be interacting with NFTs for the very first time. It has also been announced that part of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to GiveDirectly, Lideres Campesinas, and Find Food Bank.

As per Mr. Brett Harrison, the FTX.US President, “Not only are we excited to partner with a progressive forward-thinking music festival in Coachella, but also working together to make the world a better place.”