The reason Coachella could be fined thousands every time performers break golden rule

It's one of the largest and most commercially profitable festivals in the world, meaning it comes as no surprise to learn that Coachella has some incredibly strict regulations when it comes to the end of the day.

The festival typically features some of the biggest names in popular music, with tens of thousands of people flocking every year to film their shows and post them on Instagram.

Alongside being a place where you can cut loose and enjoy yourself, Coachella also has the added element of attendees donning elaborate costumes for the festival to post on social media.

It's a far cry from Brits losing a welly in the knee-deep mud at Glastonbury, that's for sure.

But as much as many might like to see festivals as a place where the usual rules of society don't apply, that isn't very much the case.

And this is exemplified in one of the rules that the festival has not for its attendees, but for the artists who take to the stage to perform at the hugely popular event.

So what is this rule, and why could it end up costing the festival thousands of dollars?

Kendall and Kylie Jenner attending Coachella in 2015. (Brigade/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

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 1am.

There are very strict rules around what happens if this is broken, with the festival receiving hefty fines if an artist goes over - something Coachella is facing this year thanks to Lana Del Rey.

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

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.

Nothing like living in the moment. (Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella)

And this isn't the only controversy at the festival.

Coachella has also been heavily criticised over the outfits some attendees don.

These feature elements such as indigenous warbonnets, South Asian bindis, or black hairstyles such as dreadlocks or cornrows.

Critics accuse attendees of removing these garments and hairstyles from the cultural context in which they originate and highlight that wearing them as a costume is deeply disrespectful.

Some have even called for Coachella to ban attendees from wearing these garments in their costumes.