Coachella participants are getting into debt just to attend the festival

In recent hours, videos documenting Coachella’s prices have been going viral. Beyond the cost of tickets, which this year range from $700 to $1400, even food represents a prohibitive expense, with the more “basic” dinners (which don’t even include table service since they’re take-away) costing around $100. With all the talk going around about the economic crisis and the second American recession, one can’t help but wonder what kind of jobs festivalgoers have to afford such a luxury. Apart from the various influencers and celebrities invited to Coachella by brands or performer friends, there are people who paid for the trip out of their own pockets. However, a new report by Billboard shows that many of them haven’t paid in full yet: more than half (60%) of Coachella 2025 attendees are buying tickets through the installment payment plan, buy now pay later. Coachella isn’t the first festival to offer this service, with Lollapalooza and Rolling Loud having introduced similar systems. This year at Coachella, it was possible to attend by making an initial payment of just $49.99—but for how many months will people be paying for an experience that lasts just a few days?

This year, according to Billboard, those who started paying for Coachella admission before the lineup was announced in January were able to split the costs into three transactions. The festival doesn’t use platforms like Klarna, likely due to taxes, but instead relies on services offered by ticketing companies such as Ticketmaster and Frontgate. Coachella organizers are paid as attendees settle their balances (whereas with other buy now pay later services, the platform pays in full upfront and collects the money over time). To use the plan, buyers must pay a $41 fee, which is split evenly between the ticketing company and Coachella. But the service isn’t new: the Californian festival has offered it since 2009, the year it was used by 18% of attendees. Although the system may seem like the best solution for fans wanting to attend without going broke, the fact remains that events like this have reached exorbitant prices. It’s even more puzzling that people are willing to go into debt just to participate.

As we mentioned in a recent article, Coachella is no longer at Coachella. This year, the festival has even been compared to the Fyre Festival flop, as some attendees who arrived early to get camping spots were forced to wait long hours just to enter, take a shower, or get water. These kinds of scenes are no longer rare—so why do people keep spending thousands of dollars just to be there? As is often the case in this new age of consumption, the answer lies in nostalgia: long gone are the days when the festival set the trends, when images of Coachella romanticized its aesthetic and lifestyle. Maybe we miss it because it’s been so long. Going into debt, however, won’t bring back flower crowns and boho-chic fringes.