Timothy Norris

For all of the would-be Coachella goers who lost money and wristbands after missing a payment on the festival's layaway plan, it's time to start checking your mailbox for a refund.

Coachella's parent company, Goldenvoice, is currently issuing checks to those affected by their former payment plan, and purchasers from as far back as 2012 have come forward with news of their refunds. Goldenvoice is reportedly reimbursing people for all of their concerts that utilized said payment plan, which would include Coachella's country counterpart, Stagecoach. The layaway plan in question stated that payments were the sole responsibility of the account holder, and if someone exceeded the ten-day grace period, all tickets and money applied would be forfeited.

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Willie T.

Diehard Coachella fans and pesky scalpers will be scrambling to snag their share of pre-sale tickets this week, which are set to go on sale Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST. However, savvy shoppers adept at reading the fine print will notice a new policy in effect for this year's layaway plan. The new approach is considerably less stringent than in past years, and is arguably the result of an emerging class action lawsuit against Coachella, their parent company Goldenvoice, and their ticketing distributor Front Gate.

The new layaway policy states that if a purchaser misses a payment and exceeds the 10-day grace period, Coachella will cancel their ticket order and issue a $50 restocking fee. This process is drastically different from previous years, when organizers clearly stated that if a person using the payment plan exceeds the grace period, they not only lose their tickets, they forfeit all money applied toward the order up to that point.

Abigail Drake is at the forefront of the lawsuit that sparked the shift in this year's policy. The complaint alleges that the music and arts festival's previous payment plan is in violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law, and was filed by Drake via the Fernald Law Group on April 23.

Drake vs. Coachella (Yes, This An Actual Lawsuit)

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Willie T.

Despite the misleading name of this emerging lawsuit, Drake isn't suing Coachella for facilitating sexual assault by Madonna or for the lackluster response to his headlining sets. In fact, this lawsuit has nothing to do with the musician Drake whatsoever. Drake vs. Coachella is a class action lawsuit accusing the festival of violating California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law. The accusation targets Coachella's layaway plan, which requires purchasers to forfeit all money applied to their ticket if they are more than ten days late on a payment. Enter the plaintiff, Abigail Drake.

Drake (the woman, not the artist) purchased two tickets and a camping pass for Weekend 1 of the 2015 festival through their layaway plan for $850. She proceeded to make four timely payments for a total of $617.90, but when her credit card was cancelled due to fraudulent charges, she exceeded Coachella's ten-day grace period. Coachella, who uses Front Gate Ticketing to handle their ticketing purchases, allegedly cancelled her order and informed her that due to lack of payment all money paid up to that point had been forfeited -all $617.90.

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Willie T

We love you, Coachella, but sometimes you bring us down. Here were the biggest bummers of weekend two.

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Christopher Victorio

Damn, Coachella. How do you do it? Every time us weekend two folks start to feel discouraged by the barrage of snark and dissatisfaction on social media from the wealthy one-percenters of weekend one, you come along and prove that the second round of the festival really does belong to the chosen people. Here's the best of what we saw this weekend at Coachella, weekend two.

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David Le

I'm not the guy in the Luchador mask crowdsurfing during Touche Amore, but I wish I was.

Hi, my name is Josh, and until last week, I was a Coachella virgin.

Until this past weekend, I'd never considered setting foot on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club (or even spending a night in Indio, for that matter). I'd never attended a multi-day music festival, wasn't sure I could even pronounce the names of half of the acts playing this year, and I certainly wasn't about to spend hundreds to go spend a weekend with a bunch of sweaty strangers wearing floral headbands and feather headdresses.

See also: Remembering Ikey Owens on His Big Night at Coachella 2015

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Father John Misty

Like it or not, on-line chatter can't stop won't stop and when there's a big (ish) event, whether it be on TV or live in our hood, social media is having their uncensored say. When it came to Coachella 2015 however, we noticed on the 2nd weekend, the topical tweets slowed down substantially. We can only chalk that up to having a severe case of "we never really cared about it anyway but wanted to hit a trending topic just in case" syndrome. We totally comprende.

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David James Swanson

Ikey Owens on October 11 in Mexico City, performing with Jack White.

[Editor's Note: This is not really a Coachella post. I'm not speaking to you as a music journalist. Or as a fan. Just as a guy remembering a friend.]

Had he been alive to see it, last night would've easily been described as the biggest night in Ikey Owens' life as a musician. As Jack White's trusted keyboardist, he would've causally strolled on stage behind his boss--shades on, suited up, looking fly as fuck. As the crowd rolled and roared like an ocean for the enigmatic, Saturday night headliner, Owens would've sat down at his white keyboard rig, flashed a quick smile, and proceeded to deliver hell fire behind the ivories. A kid from Long Beach performing for over 90,000 people during a Saturday night, mainstage, headlining set. Not bad.

In so many ways, it would've felt like an end goal of something that so many people wanted for him--recognition, praise, and love emanating for the masses, many of whom who had no idea that his genius stretched far beyond these bright lights of Indio. All of the hard work Owens put into the music business--so many years, so many bands, so many records--would've culminated on Saturday night at the biggest music festival on the west coast. And yet, despite his tragic and untimely death in Mexico last year that left Long Beach reeling, he still did make it to that stage last night. His memory was carried on the lips of his pale skinned frontman, who paused for a simple moment of reverence in front of the sweaty, smiling crowd.

See also: Ikey Owens was Long Beach's Ultimate Sonic Wingman

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Daniel Kohn

For some bands, a noon set at Coachella is great in theory, but hard to actually get up and ready for. Baraboo, WI. natives PHOX aren't discouraged by an early set time, in fact, they can't help but show how excited they are to play the event. Despite the festival being a couple of thousand mies away, they have plenty of friends, spouses and girlfriends coming in. A forgiving tour schedule allows them to attend all three days of the festival, something few bands actually do. Though a noble notion, the band returned to their base in Yucca near 2 a.m., which doesn't sound so bad--unless you factor in that load in time back on-site is at 8 a.m. for their noon slot on the Outdoor stage.

Even on a handful hours of sleep, the indie folk band, for the most part is ready to go on schedule. Packing into three cars, the first two cars zip down the freeways and make it to the venue with time to spare. However, one important person isn't at the soundcheck 15 minutes before they're scheduled to hit the stage: singer Monica Martin.

What her bandmates don't know as they munch French Toast and a tofu scramble is that nearly halfway into her journey, she thinks she forgot her inner ear monitors back at the house, which leaves their tour manager scrambling, even pulling over the car on the busy freeway to address the situation. After scrounging around for a few minutes, disaster is averted, even if precious minutes are ticking away.

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Christopher Victorio

Coachella as fuck, man!

By: Artemis Thomas-Hansard
You know those "Shit People Going to Coachella Say" parody videos on YouTube? Screw that. Reality at Coachella 2015 is stranger and funnier than what any Funny or Die wannabes could come up with. Here are 25 of the most memorable things our professionally trained eavesdroppers have heard on the polo grounds this year.

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