Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicked off the music festival season this past April, combining music with art, activities and sustainability initiatives in its Indio, Calif., oasis.
While not everyone can hire Beyonce to headline their event, here are four ways you can create a Coachella-inspired experience for your summer meetings.
Have Different Stations
Coachella is massive, with eight different stages and tents. This setup gets people moving throughout the space as well as spreads the audience to different parts of the festival. Having different food stations at an evening event or varying interactive stations on the trade-show floor not only helps with audience flow, it also keeps attendees entertained, giving them a variety of scheduling options and even things to come back to the following day.
Bring in Artwork
Each year, Coachella commissions original, large-scale art installations to be displayed throughout the festival. This artwork becomes a landmark throughout the public space, helping with wayfinding and serving as an oh-so-Instagrammable backdrop for attendees to post about the event. Planners can similarly work with local artists of their event destination to create an iconic look for the event brand, while also representing the community’s arts scene.
Offer Youthful Activities
The music festival scene certainly caters to millennials, but that doesn’t mean that only this generation will appreciate youthful activities. Take note from Coachella’s variety of activities that take attendees right back to their childhood. The festival’s Field of Dreams offers Dodgeball, life-size Foosball and life-size Snookball, while there are also options to play pingpong, Twister and giant Jenga. Do some research to find out what games will resonate most with your average attendee, depending on the median age of your audience.
Incorporate Wellness
It wouldn’t be a California festival without some meditation or yoga brought into the mix. Not only are yoga and Pilates classes offered at the beginning of each festival day, there’s a wellness spa built within the festival’s Activities Tent. Even more, there’s a Beauty Bar and Barber Shop for any festivalgoers in need of a quick up-do before rocking out to SZA.
