INDIO, Calif. – When Coachella starts on Friday, headlining acts like Kanye West, the Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire and others might find themselves upstaged by the stage itself.
The 80-foot-tall, 140-foot wide structure — a cube of lights that will "interact" with the thousands in the audience — won't just be in the background, but is expected to play a major role in the performances of many of the acts. It's part of big push by the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to infuse the annual extravaganza with flashy, trippy tech features that are aimed at redefining the concert experience.
"I think it will shock people," said Matt Clark of the United Visual Artists, the firm that designed the stage, which he described as "architecture."
"This is really a quite unique moment for festivals," he added. "I think it will just make other festivals feel like they have to up the ante."
The Coachella festival begins on Friday in the desert of Indio, Calif., and marks the unofficial kickoff of the summer music festival season. Dozens and dozens of acts — including Lauryn Hill, Mumford & Suns, Wiz Khalifa, Robyn and the Strokes — are slated to perform until the early morning hours on a variety of stages and tents.
While Coachella has brought innovative artistic elements to the festival in previous years, this year, its producers called on The Creators Project — a year-old art initiative developed by the media company Vice and tech giant Intel — to give its festival a tech-infused boost.
"We felt that we wanted to give the people going to the event something new, just to keep that show moving," said Paul Tollett, president of concert promoter Goldenvoice, which is putting on Coachella. "I believe people are going to love it."
Perhaps the most ambitious project is the main stage, which consists of a huge, square light fixture that will be closed during performances, then open to reveal even more lighting. The lighting will be coordinated with certain performances, and when the stage is "dark," it will still be lit during the evening hours, responding to audience motion with light patterns of its own.
"It transforms and changes shape in order to really create a personality for itself," said Clark, "but it also functions as a regular stage for the artists. ... It acts as a dynamic canvas for the acts."
Several artists and groups have already planned for elaborate theatrical components that will play off the huge stage, all to be kept under wraps. Arcade Fire is planning something with Chris Milk, who directed their interactive "The Wilderness Downtown" video; Interpol is also planning something special that guitarist Daniel Kessler didn't want to reveal, but teased: "Visually, I think we're presenting something that we haven't done before."
The main stage won't be the only one touched by The Creators Project. In one tent, there will be a huge light installation; in another, there will be numerous spotlights that once entered will play the Spiritualized song "Ladies and Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space" (the band won't actually be at Coachella, however).
"This is taking performance to a whole new level, where lighting and the visual experience is as powerful in some cases as the music," said Deborah Conrad of Intel.
"The whole convergence isn't just about music," she said. "It's a convergence of art and technology in a way that's truly a first."
Shane Smith, co-founder of Vice, said many bands are already tapping into technology for the videos and shows, and Coachella's revamp this year is another extension of that.
"You really want to keep taking things forward. You don't want to say music is a static things let's just keep it there," said Smith. "As a big festival, you either embrace it or you run the risk of being left behind."
Yet while Spiritualized frontman Jason Pierce is excited over the light installation — calling it a kind of beautiful "planetarium" — he also said that adding new bells and whistles wasn't critical to enhance music's connection with its fans.
"Kids have always interacted with music, that's nothing new," he said. "I don't think it's a new level for music. ... maybe people are not pushing themselves in other areas if they're looking for a little light box as some kind of panacea to it all, or some kind of step up."
Kessler also said technical wizardry wasn't necessary to get fans excited about Coachella, but commended its promoters for attempting to create a new artistic space.
"I give Coachella a lot of credit that they try to do something different this year," he said. "For them to try and do something different, I think it shows a great character of the people behind the festival."
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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