On November 5, 1993, Pearl Jam performed for almost 25,000 fans at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.[4] The site was selected because the band refused to play in Los Angeles as a result of a dispute with Ticketmaster.[5] The show established the polo club's suitability for large-scale events; Paul Tollett, whose concert promotion company Goldenvoice booked the venue for Pearl Jam, said the concert sowed the seeds for an eventual music festival there.[3]
Around 1997, Goldenvoice was struggling to book concerts against larger companies, and they were unable to offer guarantees as high as their competitors, such as SFX Entertainment. Tollett said, "We were getting our ass kicked financially. We were losing a lot of bands. And we couldn't compete with the money."[6] As a result, the idea of a music festival was conceived. While attending the 1997 Glastonbury Festival, Tollett began to brainstorm ideas for a festival of his own with multiple venues. His intent was to book trendy artists who were not necessarily chart successes: "Maybe if you put a bunch of them together, that might be a magnet for a lot of people."[5] After looking at several sites,[3] he and Goldenvoice co-president Rick Van Santen returned to the Empire Polo Club for the Big Gig festival, and, impressed by the location's suitability for a festival, decided to book theirs there.[5]
Press coverage leading up to the inaugural Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was dominated by Woodstock 1999, a festival in July 1999 that was marred by looting, arson, violence, and rapes. Goldenvoice's insurance costs increased 40% as a result and they faced uncertainty regarding Coachella's tickets, which went on sale just one week after Woodstock 1999 ended. Organizers were already aiming to provide a "high-comfort festival experience" for Coachella but rededicated themselves to those efforts after Woodstock 1999. Advertisements boasted free water fountains, ample restrooms, and misting tents.[7]