It's been exactly one week since Goldenvoice dropped their much-anticipated lineup poster for the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. It's a known trend that they release it at the top of the year and it becomes one of the most talked about topics for days, even weeks leading up to the actual festival. One of the most exciting things about the announcement is the diversity that comes with it and 29 countries are represented this year. I did a little bit of research of my own to see exactly where every artist or band originates from (and not where they were born).
Before we dive in, I had to separate the U.S. from the rest of the world for two reasons: 1) There are too many artists/bands from the States (79 out of 168) that they need their own section. 2) The maps that were being generated didn't look aesthetically pleasing (I love charts and graphs, ok?); the U.S. was too dark compared to the rest of the world (you'll see what I mean in a second).
United States
As you can see, most of this year's artists and bands come from California, which isn't unusual. In fact, that's pretty consistent year-over-year. To get even more specific, Southern California is the most represented. What's really interesting here is that, even though 40.5% of musicians originate from the Golden State, it's the only state highlighted on the west coast. Last year, every state on the Pacific coast line was represented, including Alaska (shout out, Portgual. The Man).
It's also worth nothing that there was a huge decrease in New York-based acts. Last year, there were 18 and this year there are only seven. However, it looks like that number was made up with acts from the UK (see "The World" section).
The Northeast region came in second, followed by the South, and then the Midwest. New York had the most acts in it's region, Florida and Texas tied in the South, and Virgil Abloh and Juice WRLD held down Illinois in the Midwest among all the other states that only had one act from each (still sobbing over Kanye).
The World
It's no surprise that the second most represented country is the UK, but there was a fairly significant spike since last year. 2018 contained just 19 acts from the UK and that number has increased to 29 this year. I'm excited to see what the British have to offer, especially Ella Mai, Idris Elba, Blood Orange, and The 1975. Also, interestingly enough, there was the same amount of French musicians this year as there were last year. I missed them all last year, but Gesaffelstein is a definite must this time around.
What I really appreciate about Goldenvoice is that they really try to get exclusive, unique acts for this particular festival. As you can see from the chart above, every continent was tapped (excluding Antarctica, of course) and I find that super intriguing. It's tough to find another lineup like this one. With so many other music festivals that are genre-specific, such as EDM (EDC) or hip-hop (Rolling Loud), Coachella is literally all over the map. It's a "something for everyone" type of thing, and that's what differentiates it from the rest in the best way possible. I can't wait to hear the sounds of the world on the polo fields in April.
To see the entire spreadsheet with each individual artist/band's origin, click here. I tried my best to make sure it was completely accurate. Keep in mind this was posted on 1/9/19, before the Do-Lab and Heineken House announcements, and there can potentially be late adds or omissions to the main lineup. Those changes will be reflected in the spreadsheet when the time comes.