This weekend more than 50,000 people will head on over to Indio, California to drench themselves in sweat, music and art for this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Veterans of Coachella will be in for a surprise as Paul Tollet, its founder, has enlisted The Creators Project, an innovative partnership between Vice and Intel, to transform the festival’s vibe and experience. The Creators Project is the brainchild of Vice's founder Shane Smith. The global cultural initiative brings artists, photographers, filmmakers, designers and technology together and provides a platform for expression and sharing.
From the looks of it, the show stopper this year will be the enormous electro-cube main stage designed by United Visual Artists, which takes into consideration one of the things that makes Coachella so unique, its desert landscape. Throughout the course of the weekend, the stage will employ negative space, lights and movement to take on different transformations pertinent to each individual show. The malleable nature of the cube also serves as a platform for even further collaborations by performers such as Arcade Fire, Interpol, Animal Collective and Kanye with the hope that the multimedia experience will provide the performers and audience the emotional connection they crave.
Almost eclipsing the anticipation of the new stage is the buzz surrounding the cathedral-like installation designed by Undisclosable architects called “Untitled” where director Jonathan Glazer and UK band Spiritualized partnered up to create a physical manifestation of their song “Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space.” In addition, festival-goers will be able to dance the day and night away under Brazilian architect, Muti Randolph’s giant light installation inside the Sahara tent.
John Galvin, director of partner marketing for Intel states, “By introducing this level of artwork into Coachella’s environment, we are raising the bar in terms of what’s possible in regards to engagement and creation. It’s about being able to see something, feel it, engage with it, and touch it as it touches you back."