Here's the Shocking Side of Coachella You Didn't See on That YouTube Livestream
The first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival had it all: Beyoncé made a surprise appearance during her sister Solange's set, the Outkast reunion was epic, and Nas even performed with his onetime arch rival, Jay Z. Thanks to a livestream, those of us either too broke or too far away to experience the Coachella Valley's nearly 100-degree temperatures could still enjoy all the festivities. But there's a less glitzy side to Coachella that wasn't caught on the star-packed YouTube feed, and we're not talking about the two-days-without-a-shower crowd that camped out near the world-famous Empire Polo Fields.
As the video above shows, the East Coachella Valley is home to thousands of impoverished people who mostly live in run-down trailers. It's pretty heartbreaking to watch as Fusion correspondent Annie Rose Ramos follows Diego Ceja, a 12-year-old who lives with his family in a trailer and has to drink bottled water because what comes out of the faucet has tested positive for toxic levels of arsenic.
Then there's the plight of migrant workers who come to harvest the area's bountiful crops. The ranks of agricultural workers swell by the tens of thousands during the spring and summer months, when folks arrive to pick the strawberries and mangoes that the festivalgoers a few miles to the west enjoy eating. If those workers manage to get shelter, it usually doesn't come with electricity or plumbing.
“It's very clear and apparent when you’re here in May and June that there’s an amazing amount of individuals here working really hard in the hot sun who have very little options for where to live,” Nadia Villagran of the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition told Fusion. “So they sleep under trees and in their cars, and they share public bathing facilities, just to get by while they’re working here.”
This year a general-admission pass for Coachella set regular attendees back $375 (it's $799 a pop for the VIP experience.) Concertgoers can even pony up $2,900 for a four-person tent and four regular tickets. The tents come with "air conditioning, restrooms and showers, free adjacent private parking lot, gear drop- off area, breakfast/late night snacks, onsite concierge, dedicated security/secure fence lines, outdoor chairs, shade tents, outdoor lighting, games and more." No wonder Coachella raked in $47.3 million in 2013 and is the most profitable music festival in the United States.
The festival's producers, Goldenvoice, run free health clinics in the area prior to the festival. But given the extremes of wealth and poverty there, whether it's Goldenvoice or the local government stepping up to help, it's obvious that more needs to be done.