Ryan Feinberg, staff writer
With the Coachella Music Festival beginning on Friday, April 12, many students anticipate the artist lineup and possible surprises. At last year’s festival, a hologram Tupac Shakur shook the crowd and the music world alike, setting a precedent for exciting surprise performances.
Although junior Haley Albert is looking forward to see The xx, Sigur Ros, Grimes, Wolfgang Gartner, Jamie xx, C2C and more, she is not as satisfied with this year’s lineup as that of last year.
“Well, I definitely preferred last year’s lineup to this year’s,” Albert said. “This year’s lineup has more relatively unknown artists compared to last year’s. I also feel like there are just not as many artists performing this year that have had new music come out. I do like the lineup. I just like last year’s more.”
Albert explained that “the perfect surprise would be if Daft Punk came out with Phoenix.”
Senior Savannah Slotkin concurred with Albert that this year’s lineup is weaker.
“The headliners aren’t amazing. The smaller performers aren’t good either,” Slotkin explained. “I am looking forward to seeing Red Hot Chili Peppers the most.”
Slotkin is confident a surprise will make the weekend more memorable.
“A perfect surprise would be if a big rapper shows up,” Slotkin said. “No doubt that will happen though.”
Senior Drew Freeman, a newcomer to the festival, views Coachella with similar expectations.
“I’ve never been to Coachella, but I think that year’s last lineup was more appealing to me than this year’s,” Freeman said. “I’m most hyped to see Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nicky Romero, Pusha T and Franz Ferdinand. The perfect surprise would be Daft Punk debuting their new album.”
Although Freeman thinks last year’s lineup was more impressive, he said he is attending the festival for many reasons.
“I’ve never been to a music festival before and I’ve heard from a lot of my friends that Coachella is amazing,” Freeman explained. “I am going basically for the experience and to have a good time with my friends.”
Junior Nima Rafiezadeh is keeping an open mind, choosing not to compare the 2013’s lineup to last year’s.
“I don’t believe the lineup is better or worse than [that of] last year, I just think that it’s different from last year,” Rafiezadeh said. “The best performers last year were the ones I didn’t know about.”
Still, Rafiezadeh is looking forward to seeing Benny Benassi, The xx, Phoenix, Pusha T and “of course, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
Rafiezadeh defined the perfect surprise performance as Kanye West coming out for any of the G.O.O.D. Music performers.
Whether or not a surprise this year will top the Tupac hologram of last year will be determined in the coming weekend.
