Desert Trip music festival to unite classic rock fans

Photo courtesy of Decca Records
Moves like Jagger · The Rolling Stones will perform at both weekends of the music festival. Lead vocalist Mick Jagger (above) is one of several anticipated artists to perform at Desert Trip this year.

Desert Trip will be an exciting and rare opportunity for fans to see Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Who, Roger Waters and Neil Young perform together. The rock music festival will take place in Indio, Calif. for two consecutive weekends during October.

At the festival, event and concert organizer Goldenvoice will be hosting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees at the Empire Polo Club, where there will be both general admission and reserved seating as well as car camping for a classic music festival experience.

The event is expected to attract many food lovers as well, as there will be delicacies from regional and national restaurants and exclusive dining experiences prepared by renowned chefs specifically for the Desert Trip event. Attendees who decide not to camp have many lodging options at the festival grounds, as well as in Indio or Palm Springs.

Goldenvoice’s arrangement to have these legends of rock perform has been a long time coming, and is expected to cost over $50 million for the artists and production setups. Despite their ages, both Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones have earned several million dollars per concert performance during their most successful concert tours.

Roger Waters, who is no stranger to the domestic and international tours of his peers, finished one of the highest grossing tours of all time after a multi-year stint with Live Nation from 2010 to 2013. Many of the artists have just released or will release remastered or new albums, most notably Neil Young, whose album The Monsanto Years has sparked conversations for its political themes.

McCartney will be releasing a re-mastering of hits entitled Pure McCartney, which primarily focuses on his post-Beatles work. McCartney will also perform his anthems from his days with The Fab Four, as fans of the singer will want to re-live performances from Beatlemania following new documentary Eight Days a Week, which was released on Sept. 16 and McCartney has promoted along with USC alumnus Ron Howard. The documentary details the band’s tours and explosion onto American pop music.

Mick Jagger and the Stones previously performed in Latin America in 2016 and will be making a stop in the Southwestern United States to coincide with Desert Trip.

Fans willing to fork over the hefty festival ticket price and make accommodations will undoubtedly be witnesses to perhaps the most successful, decorated and influential group of bands and artists to share a festival  stage.

Weekend 1 will take place Oct. 7 to 9 and Weekend 2 will take place Oct. 14 to 16. Tickets for general admission start at $399, and more luxurious seating options with reservations and food can run as high as $1599 for a weekend.