Promoters provide cheaper, smaller alternatives to mega music festivals

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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a veritable mecca for music fans.

The second weekend of the event, organized by concert promoting giant Goldenvoice, begins this Friday. Coachella's three-day festivities come with a hefty price tag — that is, of course, if you manage to snag a festival ticket in the first place.

So what’s a broke concert goer to do? Instead of venturing out to Indio, many Los Angeles music lovers are forgoing this year's Coachella for musical experiences a bit easier on the wallet.

Phil Pirrone is the founder of Moon Block Party, a Southern California concert promotion company.

Pirrone wanted to condense Moon Block Party’s efforts into one singular festival. The result is Desert Daze — a one-day festival happening this weekend in Mecca, CA. Desert Daze's venue, the Sunset Ranch Oasis, isn't too far from the Coachella site.

“We really wanted to do camping. We really wanted to do it at a ranch," Pirrone explains. "We’ve figured out how to make this festival as inexpensive for the concertgoer as possible without sacrificing quality as far as the infrastructure and the production goes.”

Tickets for Desert Daze cost $50 and include camping access. For comparison, Coachella passes can set attendees back over $400.

Pirrone admits running an affordable festival can complicate the planning process.

“We just have to kinda be careful," he acknowledges. "We’re an independent festival, and we don’t really have disposable funds. Every cent has to be meticulously planned out."

That meticulous planning, as Pirrone shares, can come at a cost: "It’s been a year in the making, and the budget’s been tweaked about a billion times.”

The unlucky fans unable to attend Coachella are often left with few alternatives. But over the last two years, events such as Desert Daze have provided affordable outlets for independent music lovers to have their own festival experiences.

These independent events even take the beheamoth Coachella to task. One of this weekend’s alternative festivals calls itself “Brokechella.”

However, Pirrone doesn’t consider Desert Daze an attack on the larger festival scene. Rather, he views his festival as a means of inspiring other potential promoters.

“I think it’s important for people to do their own shows, and put on their own parties and festivals and events," he states. "I think it’s very, very important for people not to wait around for things to happen and do them themselves.”

Tickets and information about Desert Daze can be found on the festival's website.