Coachella Will Release Lifetime Passes As An NFT

Imagine a world where Coachella could be eternal: every year, without having to go through the arduous ticket-buying process, a one-weekend pass would magically appear in your possession. That could soon be your actually reality with Coachella’s new line of NFT collections, one of which will grant 10 lucky purchasers a lifetime pass to the festival along with “access to Coachella produced virtual experiences in the future.”

For the longest time, the biggest proponents of Web 3 and NFTs have argued about the revolutionary change the blockchain could have on modern society, and well, folks, it looks like the future — for music festivals, at least — is finally here.

On Tuesday, Coachella unveiled their official NFT marketplace and the arrival of its first NFT series called Coachella Collectibles, a series of three collections that kicks off their new partnership with leading crypto exchange FTX US.

The three collections — Coachella Keys Collection, Sights and Sounds Collection, and Desert Reflections Collections — will be available for purchase on Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. PT via Coachella and FTX US. And as the name suggests, the Coachella Keys Collections is the most intriguing one yet, as the collection (which will be sold via auction format) offers 10 one-of-one NFTs that grant “lifetime festival access and VIP on-site experiences for 2022, such as front row views at the Coachella Stage, on-stage access at the Sahara Tent, or a celebrity chef dinner in the Rose Garden.” The owners of the keys will automatically receive passes to the festival every April, and, as a press release teases, “there’s no telling what these Keys will unlock” in the future. Meetings with artists? Tickets to interplanetary festivals in 2084? Who knows?

This is certainly an unprecedented move for Coachella who has never offered lifetime passes before and surely makes them one of the first, if not the first, to do it utilizing blockchain technology.

The other two collections, Sights and Sounds and Desert Reflections, are more straightforward NFT collections. Sights and Sounds grants 10,000 purchasers the opportunity to mint one out of 10 “iconic festival photos” that can also be used to redeem a physical art print of the photograph. While Desert Reflections will allow 1,000 purchases to mint one out of 10 “digital renditions of an iconic Coachella poster from Emek,” and can be used to redeem a physical copy of exclusive photo book, Coachella The Photographs: 1999-2019.

Of the new collections, Coachella Innovation Lead Sam Schoonover wrote in a press release: “We’ve all seen how NFTs enable true ownership of art and media on the internet. We wanted to take it one step further and use NFTs to enable ownership of experiences in the real world too. Only blockchain technology can give us the unique ability to offer tradeable lifetime passes to Coachella for the first time ever. We’re excited about building new utility and community for our fans with NFTs, and in FTX we found the partner that we trust to provide us with infrastructure and support to help us usher in this new frontier.”

Mindful of the environmental impact of minting NFTs, the NFTs will be minted on Solana, the blockchain platform with the lowest energy consumption in the industry. A portion of proceeds will also be donated to GiveDirectly, Lideres Campesinas, and Find Food Bank.

How to buy a Coachella Lifetime Pass NFT

All three collections go on sale Friday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. PT and end Friday, Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. PT on Coachella’s or FTX US’s website. In the meantime, get more info about each collection and view its contents here.