Rock Festival Guide 2008: From Coachella to Lollapalooza

Coachella
April 25-27
Indio, CA

Click here for Rolling Stone's complete coverage of Coachella 2008

The Lineup: Prince, Roger Waters Performing Dark Side of the Moon, Portishead, Jack Johnson, Kraftwerk, the Verve, the Raconteurs, Death Cab for Cutie, Love & Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Aphex Twin, the Breeders, Spiritualized, Serj Tankian, Gogol Bordello, M.I.A., the National, Metric, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Aesop Rock, Black Mountain, Battles & more.

The Cost: Single-day passes are long gone, so anyone looking to go at this point needs a $269 3-Day Pass.

The Skinny: The queen mother of music festivals. Coachella may not be the oldest or the most populous, but its reputation for booking eclectic and high-caliber artists has made it the point leader in the festival biz. Coachella's ace-in-sleeve has been the organizers' ability to convince defunct-but-beloved bands to reform for headlining sets. But when this year's rumors of a My Bloody Valentine reunion proved false, Coachella was left with a slightly lower-wattage (but still pretty awesome) Portishead as its big draw. What to do? Book Prince. The move cost them — some say as much as $5 million. But tickets for Saturday sold out within twenty-four hours of his addition. So what's a little extra green when there's a reputation to uphold?

Next: The Bamboozle