Reason why Coachella could be fined thousands every time performers break golden rule

Thousands of festival-goers are currently making their way to the southern California desert as Coachella 2025 kicks off, but they'd better hope their favorite performers follow this one strict rule.

The much-loved music celebration is back once more this weekend and plenty of fans will be eager for the fun that awaits.

Coachella will run for two consecutive weekends (Friday, April 11 to Sunday, April 13 and Friday, April 18 to Sunday, April 20), though you'll need the monies required for a mortgage in order to buy food and drink at the event.

That aside, the lineup for Coachella 2025 is certainly pretty strong.

Lady Gaga will kick things off on weekend one, while Charli XCX, Post Malone, and Megan Thee Stallion will perform during the opening days of the festival, just to name a few.

Announcing the news on Instagram last year, Gaga said: “I have long dreamed of throwing a massive night of chaos in the desert. I’ve had a vision I’ve never been able to fully realize at Coachella for reasons beyond our control but I wanted to come through for music fans.

"Can’t wait to hear you all sing along and dance, dance, DANCE till we drop.”

Coachella can be fined if an act breaks the golden rule (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the likes of Ed Sheeran and Sam Fender will take to the stage in the Californian sunshine during weekend two.

But, these acts need to keep in mind a golden rule when it comes to Coachella, because breaking it could see the event's organizers fined thousands of dollars.

It's all to do with curfews and licensing.

There are no all-night raves here, at least not officially, as the festival has a noise curfew of 1.00am.

There are very strict rules around what happens if this is broken, with the festival receiving hefty fines if an artist goes over.

Coachella is back! (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

These are part of an agreement that the festival has with the city of Indio, where it's hosted.

How much can Coachella get fined?

In 2023, this agreement stated that the festival must pay a penalty of $20,000 for going past curfew by five minutes each day.

Then for every minute they go on after that, they have to pay a further $1,000.

You can see how this can quickly become rather expensive, for example when musician Frank Ocean went over by some 25 minutes.

So that's $20,000 for the first five minutes and then another $20k for the other 20 minutes. Yikes.