Calvin Harris and two other performers caused biggest fine in Coachella festival history by breaking 'golden rule'

Calvin Harris and two other artists ended up causing one of the biggest fines at Coachella when they broke a golden rule.

When you think of Coachella many things come to mind, but there's one rule at the festival which the biggest celebrities can't break.

And no, it isn't not stream on your Instagram page longer than five minutes at a time.

It is time-related, though not with the social media exposure of attendees, so much as how long artists are permitted to perform.

The issue boils down to the licensing regulations around the festival which require it to not have music going on past a certain time.

If artists go over on their time slot past the curfew point then the festival's promoters can end up paying eye-watering fines for the infraction.

Seriously, we are not talking pocket change here, with every minute quite literally counting when it comes to Coachella's curfew.

That's because for every minute they go past their 1am curfew for music, the festival's promoters get charged $1,000.

The show overran, breaking the 'golden rule' (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella)

Okay, you might be thinking... $1,000 is not so bad, right? But remember, this is per minute.

The curfew is 1am for Friday and Saturday, and then midnight on the Sunday. So if someone is supposed to finish at 1am but finishes at 1.10am, that's $10,000 in fines, for 10 minutes of showtime.

But actually, it's even worse than that, because the per minute charges only come into effect after five minutes, so it's all good.

Except it's not, because those first five minutes are $20,000, so ten minutes would actually be $25,000. Ouch.

And Harris and two other artists ended up causing a big fine when they played past curfew.

The promoters had to pay a $117,000 fine (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella)

In all, the city of Indio fined the festival organisers a whopping $117,000 after the artists kept on playing, according to a statement from the deputy city manager on Tuesday.

This was from Bad Bunny, who went 25 minutes over on Friday, Calvin Harris, who went 22 minutes over on Saturday, and Frank Ocean, who went 25 minutes over on Sunday

So that's 20, 17, and 20 minutes' worth of additional fines on top of the three $20,000 they incurred by going over, for $57,000 between them.

It's not the first time that the organisers Goldenvoice have been stung by their curfew. In 2009 the promoter was slapped with a $54,000 fine after Beatles alumnus Paul McCartney ended up going over curfew.