For a while now, there have been murmurs of plans to try to bring a version of Coachella to the East Coast. Why? I don’t know. Coachella — in all its exorbitantly expensive glory — makes sense where it’s located. It’s in the middle of nowhere in Southern California’s Colorado Desert region. It’s a virtual escape for many, some 100-plus miles away from the smoggy confines of Los Angeles. And, quite simply, California outside of L.A. has the space to do a Coachella-type festival (see: why the Made In America Festival skipped the city in 2015 after its one-off uncomfortably jammed thousands into DTLA in 2014).
Meanwhile, New York? Not so much. Festivals and concerts like the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) and Hot 97’s SummerJam have taken place in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for a while now. Mysteryland occurs in Bethel Woods, the home of the original Woodstock in 1969. The only place that can reasonably hold a crowd of drunken, drug-addled partiers is Randall’s Island, and that place is A: attached to a landfill and B: is visible from Rikers Island.
So, naturally, the minds behind Coachella will try their hands at bringing the feel of that long-running California staple to the Big Apple, with the debut of the Panorama Festival. Set to go down July 22-24 at Randall’s Island Park, the self-proclaimed “music, art, and technology festival” will boast a wealth of acclaimed musicians in its inaugural weekend: Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, FKA twigs, ScHoolboy Q, Flatbush ZOMBiES, Anderson .Paak, Madlib, DJ Khaled, SZA, and many more.
Passes for Panorama go on sale Friday, March 4th on its eponymous website. And, like everything in NYC, it’s wildly expensive: general admission for all three days starts at $369, and they offer VIP weekend packages as well as transportation and layaway options. Yep, layaway. For a festival. Welcome to New York City.
