Coachella and FTX to Sell Lifetime Festival Passes as Solana-based NFTs

The multi-day music and arts festival held in California – Coachella – partnered with the crypto exchange FTX to introduce non-fungible token (NFT) collections to fans. The digital collectibles are built on the Solana network.

NFTs for The Music Fans

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to return this April. To provide fans with more opportunities on its comeback, it introduced a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) offering lifetime passes and VIP access to the event.

The three types include “Coachella Keys Collection,” “Sights and Sounds Collection,” and “Desert Reflections Collection.” The first one consists of 10 tokens and grants lifetime access to the festival and “unique experiences.” The second comprises 10,000 collectibles and depicts iconic photos and soundscapes from the Polo Fields.

“Desert Reflections Collection,” consisting of 1,000 NFTs, is the most expensive one with a starting price of $180. It celebrates Coachella’s 20-year history.

All digital collectibles are built on Solana, which Coachella described as an environmentally friendly blockchain protocol.

The team behind the festival vowed to donate the proceeds to charity organizations. Those include GiveDirectly, Lideres Campesinas, and Find Food Bank.

Sam Schoonover – Coachella’s Digital Innovation Manager – explained why the entity decided to dive into the NFT universe:

“We’ve all seen how NFTs enable true ownership of art and media on the internet. We wanted to take it one step further and use NFTs to enable ownership of experiences in the real world too. Only blockchain can give us the unique ability to offer tradable lifetime passes to Coachella for the first time ever.”

Those willing to purchase non-fungible tokens need to register with FTX US and complete an identity certification.

Some Are Not Fans of NFTs

Despite evolving as a global trend, non-fungible tokens are not an intriguing niche for everybody.

Earlier this week, the American rapper and fashion designer Kanye West urged his fans to stop asking him “to do NFTs.” In his view, essential items are those in the real world, not the digital one.

The podcast host and commentator – Joe Rogan – is also against digital collectibles. The American, a supporter of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, opined that NFTs are a “weird hustle that does not make any sense.”