Desert Trip was a six-day music festival that took place on October 7–9 and 14–16, 2016, at the

Empire Polo Club The Empire Polo Club is a 78-acre (32 ha) polo club in Indio, California in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, approximately 22 miles southeast of Palm Springs. Founded in 1987, it has hosted international polo tournaments. It leases out i ...

Indio, California Indio ( Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies east of Palm Springs, east of Riverside, east of Los Angeles, 148 mil ...

, United States. The performers were

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-s ...

, and

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

. The festival was dubbed "Oldchella" by ''

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

'' a few weeks before it was officially announced, referencing both the age of the performers and the fact that the concert was arranged by Goldenvoice, the company that also promotes the

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

at the same venue.

History

Desert Trip was founded by Coachella co-founder, producer, and Goldenvoice chief, Paul Tollett. It was produced by Goldenvoice, the company that runs Coachella and is owned by

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, ...

. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' the average attendee spent $1,000 on the weekend event.

Notable performances

Bob Dylan opened the weekend with his song " Rainy Day Women #12 & 35". The Rolling Stones covered The Beatles' " Come Together". Paul McCartney opened his October 15 set with " A Hard Day's Night". In the same show, he surprised his audience with a performance of his song " FourFiveSeconds" with special guest

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to th ...

. He also invited Neil Young on the stage to perform " Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" for the first time ever and " A Day In The Life" with him. They then continued on to perform a cover of John Lennon's " Give Peace A Chance". Bob Dylan's October 14 performance came the day after he was announced as the 2016

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

winner. Roger Waters notably used his performance to make negative comments about 2016 Republican Presidential nominee

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

and cite his support of Palestine in its conflict with Israel.

Lineup

Friday October 7, 14 *Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones Saturday October 8, 15 *Neil Young, Paul McCartney Sunday October 9, 16 *The Who, Roger Waters

References

External links

{{Commons category
Official Desert Trip website
Music festivals in California Indio, California 2016 in California 2016 music festivals October 2016 events in the United States Music festivals established in 2016