Why You Might Want to Reconsider Going to Coachella After You Learn About Its Owner

Think of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and you probably see it as a purveyor of liberal (read: woke) values, like supporting LGBTQ rights and accepting that the climate is changing rapidly. While many of the people who typically attend Coachella and its performers likely do uphold those beliefs, the festival's owner — oil tycoon Philip Anschutz — apparently does not.

In 2001, Anschutz Entertainment Group, which is owned by Anschutz, purchased Goldenvoice, the promoter and organizer of the Indio, CA, music festival. But Anschutz's questionable and lengthy history of donating to organizations that are openly anti-LGBTQ, anti-labor movements, and deniers of climate change has not come under scrutiny until the 2017 lineup was announced Tuesday. Reports from Uproxx and Afropunk detailed the billionaire's gifts.

Anschutz's donations are not infrequent or occasional: he has donated over $200,000 to anti-gay organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation, and the Family Research Council since 2013. Perhaps more distressingly, Anschutz was a major proponent of failed legislation in Colorado that would have legalized discrimination against gay people.

Anschutz's largesse extends to several pro-fracking organizations as well, one of which he operates, called the Anschutz Exploration Company. He also owns two newspapers in Colorado and Oklahoma that curiously published the benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline.

So far, no musicians have pulled out of playing the festival. Anschutz told Rolling Stone that such reports were "garbage" and "fake news," despite donation history being public record.

Much like his billionaire associates the Koch brothers, Anschutz is apparently not the tolerant, superchill, likable guy we all hope would own a cultural phenomenon like Coachella. But then again, it's difficult to imagine a man who made his billions in oil and gas would support clean energy.

If this discovery has caused you to rethink your Coachella plans this year, you might also need to add a few other AEG-owned companies to your list: the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers, as well as any event at the Staples Center.