By Bruce Fessier, Special for USA TODAY
More than 150 indie-rock acts, led by Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon and Kanye West, set the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival aglow in the desert this weekend, marking the traditional start to the summer concert season.
By Kevin Winter, Getty Images
Arcade Fire, with lead vocalist Win Butler, was a Saturday sensation, performing songs from its Suburbs album along with older anthems.
By Kevin Winter, Getty Images
Arcade Fire, with lead vocalist Win Butler, was a Saturday sensation, performing songs from its Suburbs album along with older anthems.
Main mix-up:�Chilean band Los Bunkers, scheduled to open the main stage on Sunday, was a no-show. That made London-born pop singer Eliza Doolittle, wearing a black-and-green headdress and matching green shorts, an early afternoon attention-grabber during her set in the Gobi tent.
Sunday's main stage was later to feature Duran Duran, The Strokes and Kanye West.
Headliner shuffle:Kings of Leon were the Friday headliners, but the powerful electronic group the Chemical Brothers was the night's final act, starting well after midnight because of scheduling delays.
Arcade Fire, which performed two of Coachella's greatest sets in 2005 and 2007 as supporting acts, surpassed even those memorable moments on Saturday, playing with abandon on songs from its recent Grammy-winning album The Suburbs and older anthems such as Intervention and Awake. The Canadian band released hundreds of large glowing balls during the latter song as the crowd sang along to the chorus.
AP
Arcade Fire fans cheered during the song Awake as the band released hundreds of glowing balls.
The numbers:�Promoter Paul Tollett of L.A.-based Goldenvoice production company declined to release crowd estimates. The city of Indio gave Goldenvoice a permit for 80,000 people, plus concert and event personnel, but Tollett said he didn't want to allow that many people after overcrowding and counterfeit-ticketing problems evoked criticism last year.
That festival drew record crowds of 75,000 people a day, so Goldenvoice purchased more acreage for the festival and invested $50,000 to expand a nearby road. Attendance may have exceeded 75,000 by the time the Black Keys finished their blues-based set at 9:30 p.m. Friday, but the congestion was largely mitigated.
Starry crowd:�Paul McCartney generated more excitement walking through the VIP section than he did onstage at the 2009 Coachella. Normally jaded media people squealed as if it were the British Invasion all over again. Rihanna, Kirsten Dunst, Katy Perry, Aziz Ansari and Sting also generated buzz. Regulars such as Paris Hilton, Kelly Osbourne and Danny DeVito attended, and DeVito jumped onstage Friday during a set by the Aquabats.
Delightful enlightenment:�Goldenvoice announced plans to "reinvent" the festival-going experience, and it definitely took it up a notch with a multimedia collaboration with the Creators Project, a global cultural initiative by Vice and Intel Corp.
The Sahara tent, redesigned for collaborations with electronic artists, featured flashing light designs hanging vertically and horizontally over the audience to create a multidimensional effect. They greatly enhanced presentations by noise-rock pioneers Black Dice and Animal Collective.
Getty Images
Singer Eliza Doolittle made the scene Sunday
in green headdress and shorts.
Festival attendees Kenny Gedelian of San Diego and B.B. Ingle of Palm Desert said they enjoyed the light shows and tent experiences as much as the music.
Musical moments:�Diverse musical highlights on Friday ranged from Ms. Lauryn Hill, who brought new dynamics to old hits, to the English folk band Mumford & Sons and Rock en Espa�ol pioneers Caifanes.
A low moment came when R&B star Cee Lo Green arrived late and had the plug pulled on his sound after five songs. His last complete song was the 2010 hit F--- You, which proved to be an apt reflection of his anger at not being able to complete his set.
Up-and-comers:�Most impressive in the midsize Mojave tent were the Sleigh Bells, who benefited from a creative light show, and The Foals, who listener Ian Woodward of Tempe, Ariz., said are ready to move onto the main stage.
The final word:�Indio ? home to the "Big 4" thrash metal tour date with Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer next weekend, and country music extravaganza Stagecoach on April 30-May 1 ? calls itself the city of festivals. City councilwoman Elaine Holmes said Coachella made her feel "really, really proud" to be a resident.
"There was so much energy at Coachella," she said. "There were people from every continent in the world. I heard many languages spoken as I walked around. It is truly an international event, and the one thing we all had in common was great music."
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