Desert Trip's dream lineup and sky-high prices are making history—and upending rock fest tradition [View all]

[Zorro]

There’s a good reason many people are calling the Desert Trip music festival “Oldchella”: The average age of the audience is 51; for the headlining acts, it’s 72.

But if the punchline for the multi-weekend event featuring performances by half a dozen rock titans, including the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, involves sensible shoes and Viagra, the bottom line is even more complicated: An event aimed specifically at the commune-embracing “Steal this Book” generation will be the most lucrative music festival on record.

For many attendees, it will also be the most expensive, pointing to the evolution of the once-egalitarian ethos of rock and quite possibly a revolution in the price, shape and content of music festivals in the future.

Desert Trip, which kicks off Friday, is slated to take in $160 million over two consecutive weekends. That’s almost double the previous record of $84 million by the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year (both are promoted by Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice and take place on the same grounds in Indio).

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-desert-trip-barrier-20161003-snap-story.html