Every April, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, transforms into the most photographed, most streamed, and most talked-about music event on the planet. Coachella 2026 — the festival’s 25th anniversary edition — sold out in just two days after tickets went on sale, with headliners Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G (the first Latina artist to headline the festival).
But behind all the stages, art installations, and celebrity sightings is a surprisingly quiet ownership structure — one that traces back to a Denver billionaire whose name most festivalgoers have never heard.
What Is Coachella?
Coachella — officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. It was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999 and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The event features musical artists from many genres of music, including rock, pop, indie, hip hop, and electronic dance music, as well as art installations and sculptures.
It is one of the largest, most famous, and most profitable music festivals in the United States and the world. The 2017 festival was attended by 250,000 people and grossed $114.6 million.
Who Owns Coachella Right Now in 2026?
The ownership of Coachella runs through a chain of companies that ultimately leads to one man: Philip Anschutz.
Coachella is owned by Philip Anschutz through his company, the Anschutz Corporation, which controls AEG, the parent company behind the festival. In practice, Coachella is organized by Goldenvoice, an AEG subsidiary.
Here is how the chain works: Goldenvoice produces Coachella. Goldenvoice is owned by AEG Presents. AEG Presents is the live entertainment arm of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). AEG is a subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. And the Anschutz Corporation is owned entirely by Philip Anschutz.
Through AEG Live, Anschutz owns the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Sea Island Resorts, and The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado. As of May 2025, Forbes ranks him the 130th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $16.9 billion.
Ownership and Key Stakeholders Table
| Party | Role | Ownership Type | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Anschutz | Ultimate Owner | 100% private ownership via Anschutz Corporation | Net worth ~$16.9 billion (Forbes, May 2025); based in Denver, Colorado |
| Anschutz Corporation | Parent Holding Company | Private | Diversified interests in energy, real estate, entertainment, and media |
| Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) | Entertainment Subsidiary | Fully owned by Anschutz Corporation | One of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies |
| AEG Presents | Live Entertainment Division | Fully owned by AEG | Operates live events globally; owns and operates major concert tours |
| Goldenvoice | Festival Organizer & Direct Owner | Subsidiary of AEG Presents | Los Angeles-based; produces Coachella, Stagecoach, and other festivals |
| Paul Tollett | Co-Founder & CEO of Goldenvoice | No equity in Anschutz Corp | Co-founded Coachella in 1999; runs day-to-day festival operations |
| Rick Van Santen | Co-Founder of Coachella | No ownership role in Anschutz Corp | Co-founded the festival with Tollett in 1999 |
| Empire Polo Club | Venue | Third-party landowner | Hosts Coachella every April in Indio, California |
Who Is Philip Anschutz? The Man Behind the Festival
Philip Anschutz is one of the most powerful and least-recognized billionaires in America. He does not give interviews. He rarely appears in public. Most Coachella attendees have no idea his name is attached to the festival at all — and that distance appears to be entirely deliberate.
Anschutz is the principal owner of the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and was a minority owner of the NBA‘s Los Angeles Lakers until selling his interest in 2021. He also owns stakes in performance venues, including Crypto.com Arena, The O2 Arena in London, and the Dignity Health Sports Park. Through his ownership of Walden Media, he has invested in films such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Ray, and Joshua.
Coachella, for example, is run by Goldenvoice, which is a branch of AEG Presents, which is the live arm of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which is part of the Anschutz Corporation, which began as an oil well drilling company.
The tension between Anschutz’s personal political donations to conservative causes and Coachella’s progressive, LGBTQ+-friendly cultural reputation has been a source of ongoing controversy. The Anschutz Corporation has made donations to conservative political organizations, though Anschutz himself has stated he did not personally support specific political positions attributed to those groups.
The Origin Story: Pearl Jam, a Polo Field, and $850,000 in Losses
Coachella’s story does not begin with a business plan. It begins with a band boycott.
On November 5, 1993, during their Vs. Tour, Pearl Jam performed for almost 25,000 fans at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The site was selected because the band refused to play in Los Angeles as a result of a dispute with Ticketmaster over service charges applied to ticket purchases. The show established the polo club’s suitability for large-scale events. Paul Tollett, whose concert promotion company Goldenvoice booked the venue for Pearl Jam, said the concert sowed the seeds for an eventual music festival there.
Paul Tollett is an American music promoter and festival producer, renowned as the founder of Coachella and the president and CEO of Goldenvoice. Born around 1966 in Ohio, Tollett relocated to Pomona, California at age seven and developed an early interest in music promotion as a teenager. At 17 in 1982, he created his first concert poster for a local ska band performance. By 1986, he joined Goldenvoice as an assistant to founder Gary Tovar.
The first Coachella festival launched on October 9–10, 1999, with headliners including Beck, Tool, and Rage Against the Machine. Tickets cost $50 for the weekend. The result? Goldenvoice lost roughly $850,000, nearly bankrupting the company and prompting Tollett to sell personal assets like his house and car to sustain operations.
Tollett pushed through it. The festival returned in 2001, slowly rebuilt credibility, and hit its first true turning point in 2004 — the first sellout, with 110,000 people and a headlining set from Radiohead that changed how artists and audiences perceived the festival.
How Goldenvoice Became Part of AEG
By 1997, Goldenvoice was struggling to compete against larger promoters with deeper pockets. Tollett said at the time: “We were getting our ass kicked financially. We were losing a lot of bands. And we couldn’t compete with the money.”
AEG — already backed by Philip Anschutz’s vast resources — acquired Goldenvoice and gave Tollett the financial firepower to build Coachella into what it is today. Under AEG’s ownership, Goldenvoice expanded beyond Coachella to create the Stagecoach country music festival in 2007, also at the Empire Polo Club, along with dozens of other events across California and the western United States.
The arrangement works because Tollett runs the creative side of Coachella with enormous autonomy. AEG provides the infrastructure, capital, and corporate scale. The result is one of the most commercially successful creative partnerships in the live entertainment industry.
Coachella 2026: The 25th Anniversary Edition
Coachella 2026 marks the festival’s 25th anniversary. The headliners are Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G — the first Latina artist to headline the festival. The official dates are April 10–12 and April 17–19, 2026, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
Justin Bieber is reportedly making $10 million for his performances. The fandom power of the headliners was undoubtedly a driving force for this year’s passes selling out within two days of going on sale in September 2025.
In 2023, Coachella’s streaming agreement with YouTube was renewed through 2026, and for the first time, performances from all six stages were streamed, covering both weekends.
How Much Is Coachella Worth?
Coachella is one of the most financially powerful music events in the world. The 2017 festival grossed $114.6 million from 250,000 attendees across two weekends. With GA tickets for 2026 priced at $549 per person and both weekends selling out, the gross revenue for Coachella 2026 is estimated to exceed $100 million from ticket sales alone — before sponsorships, brand activations, food and beverage, or merchandise.
Beyond the festival itself, Coachella generates enormous economic value for the Indio region and the broader Coachella Valley. Hotels in Palm Springs and surrounding areas charge peak-season rates during festival weekends, and the economic impact for the region runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1. Who owns Coachella in 2026?
Coachella is owned by Philip Anschutz through the Anschutz Corporation, which controls AEG and its subsidiary Goldenvoice, the company that directly organizes the festival.
Q2. Who founded Coachella and when?
Coachella was co-founded by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen in 1999 through their concert promotion company Goldenvoice.
Q3. What is Goldenvoice?
Goldenvoice is a Los Angeles-based concert promotion company that directly produces Coachella, Stagecoach, and dozens of other live events. It is a subsidiary of AEG Presents.
Q4. Who is Philip Anschutz?
Philip Anschutz is an American billionaire based in Denver with an estimated net worth of $16.9 billion. He owns AEG, the LA Kings, venues like Crypto.com Arena and The O2 Arena, and through Goldenvoice, Coachella.
Q5. When is Coachella 2026?
Coachella 2026 takes place April 10–12 and April 17–19, 2026, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, marking the festival’s 25th anniversary.
Q6. Who are the headliners at Coachella 2026?
The headliners are Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G — the first Latina artist to headline Coachella in the festival’s history.
Q7. How much do Coachella tickets cost in 2026?
General Admission passes for Coachella 2026 are priced at $549 per person per weekend. Both weekends sold out within two days of going on sale in September 2025.
Q8. Is Coachella privately owned?
Yes. Coachella is entirely privately owned through the Anschutz Corporation, a private holding company. It is not publicly traded and has no outside shareholders.
Coachella is owned by Philip Anschutz — a Denver-based billionaire with a net worth of approximately $16.9 billion — through a chain of private companies: the Anschutz Corporation → Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) → AEG Presents → Goldenvoice. The festival was co-founded in 1999 by Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen, with Tollett still serving as CEO of Goldenvoice and running the festival’s creative direction to this day.
Coachella 2026 — the festival’s 25th edition — is headlined by Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G, sold out in two days, and takes place April 10–19, 2026 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. The man who owns it all prefers to stay completely out of the spotlight. That is perhaps the most Coachella thing about him.
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