Coachella Hops On Board Cruise Ship, Rides Floating Festival Wave

The Coachella Music Festival may conjure up images of dusty desert revelers and neo-hippies rolling in the grass, but things are about to get a tad more posh as the festival heads to the tropics. Introducing "S.S. Coachella," a cruise ship concert that pairs sand and surf with sun and sound.

If your main deterrent to going on a cruise in the past was the lack of all-inclusive buffets, overcrowded wave pools and too many arcade games, you're in luck. Celebrity Cruises has teamed up with Coachella organizer Goldenvoice to take the 13-year-old concert extravaganza to the seas aboard the 2,886-passenger Celebrity Silhouette.

Coachella's new floating home offers numerous bars (Pool & Mast Bar, Sunset Bar, Ensemble Lounge and Club Quasar, among others); French, Italian and other European-inspired restaurants; and amenities like a casino, fitness area, library, Persian garden, cyber café, yoga studio, spa and salon.

Basically, it's no Indio -- the location of the concert's usual home in Southern California's Colorado Desert.
At under 3,000 festivalgoers (and in a decidedly cramped setting), the S.S. Coachella promises an intimate experience and an opportunity to expand the brand beyond its California roots.

The 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival grossed more than $47 million, making it the largest gross ever for a single concert event. Many analysts expected Goldenvoice to seek opportunities to grow or perhaps add another permanent venue.
But few anticipated a floating one.

Organizers will offer two back-to-back S.S. Coachella cruises on the Celebrity Silhouette this December, featuring a predictably top-notch coterie of performers.

Pulp, Hot Chip, Yeasayer, Girl Talk, Sleigh Bells, Simian Mobile Disco and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, among a host of others, will be on the menu in this musical buffet at sea. No word yet on any back-from-the-dead holographic celebrities.

If the Coachella-meets-Caribbean idea comes as a shock, it shouldn't. Festivals at sea have emerged as a lucrative business in recent years, with bands replacing karaoke singers, ABBA cover bands and pop has-beens as cruise ship entertainment.

The fast-rising electronic scene has its own cruise, the sold-out Holy Ship!, and music cruise organizer Sixthman, one of the industry's biggest players, has chartered cruise liners for voyages like The Rock Boat for over a decade. Kiss, Kid Rock, Weezer and New Kids on the Block are among a growing list of groups who've begun hosting their own annual rock-infused sailings.

In terms of business, the voyages are seen as beneficial for both the music and travel industries. The cruise liners can attract a younger clientele while the promoters and artists can rake in cash during the festival industry's winter doldrums. Plus, there are no curfews, no potentially dangerous drives home and no getting shut down by local authorities.

If you like your music with a side of paradise, these luxury liners offer the chance to have everything all in one place: your favorite bands, your ideal tropical vacation and the all-American opportunity to gorge on unlimited frozen yogurt.