Coachella Festival Gives NFT Passes Another Try Following FTX Mess

By Andrew Hayward

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival announced Tuesday that it will release NFT collectibles that serve as an access pass to this year’s event in Indio, California in April. It’s the second time that Coachella has embraced NFT passes, following a collaboration with FTX that ultimately went sour after the crypto exchange’s 2022 collapse.

Starting Tuesday at 1pm ET on the OpenSea marketplace, Coachella will release the first collection of NFTs: The VIP Pass + Oasis Lounge Keepsake. Minted on the Avalanche blockchain, these 1,000 total collectibles include a VIP Festival Pass for this year’s event, plus access to the titular lounge that has complimentary drinks and other amenities.

Coachella will follow that up with two additional collections on OpenSea, beginning with the Canvas Welcome Box Keepsake mint on March 25. While pricing and “tiers” have not been revealed yet, according to a press release, these NFTs will include “varying levels of utility, including unique merchandise, digital content, and access to the Rose Garden VIP area.”

Finally, a third collection will arrive in mid-April with an as-yet-unrevealed artist collaboration and “yet another layer of exclusive benefits for Coachella attendees.” Details on that final drop are expected in late March. Sam Schoonover, Coachella’s Innovation Lead, said in a press release that OpenSea will let the festival “safely provide” such experiences to attendees.

“Our collaboration with OpenSea begins a new chapter in how we use NFTs to provide unique custom experiences for Coachella in real life and online,” said Schoonover. “We're moving towards a future where Coachella isn't just an event you attend, but an experience you can own and shape based on the digital tokens in your possession.”

In February 2022, Coachella auctioned 10 lifetime festival passes on the Solana blockchain in collaboration with FTX, reportedly generating $1.5 million in the process. Coachella also released larger digital collectibles sets at lower, fixed price points.

But after FTX collapsed in November 2022, many of the NFTs that the exchange had minted on its own platform—including those from Coachella—could no longer be accessed by owners or transferred out to external wallets. Some NFTs stopped displaying their artwork too, as the centralized servers hosting the art had shut down.

Schoonover told Decrypt this week that the festival has worked with those Solana NFT buyers to “ensure that their benefits continue to be honored and that they receive new, reissued NFTs.”

Furthermore, he says the interest in those original NFTs pointed the way for the popular festival—which is headlined by No Doubt, Doja Cat, Tyler The Creator, and Lana Del Rey this year—to give the idea another shot with a new partner.

“Our campaign in 2022 clearly struck a positive chord with Coachella fans, which is why we're offering NFTs with festival benefits again this year with a trusted, secure, and safe partner, OpenSea,” Schoonover told Decrypt. “We're also using OpenSea's new wallet solution to allow buyers to sign up with email and self-custody their NFTs after purchase.”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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