Tacocat will still perform at Coachella, vocalist Emily Nokes announced, in the wake of growing awareness of festival owner Philip Anschultz's support for anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion, and climate change-denying policies.
Anschultz is the owner of Coachella's parent company AEG Live, which owns the Showbox and frequently promotes events in major Seattle-area venues such as KeyArena, WaMu Theater, and Marymoor Park. Its empire extends to many other stadiums, arenas, and convention centers worldwide and includes several professional sports teams. Anschultz reportedly has funneled profits into conservative organizations, like Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, and the National Christian Foundation.
In the post, Nokes confesses to conflicted feelings about even accepting an invitation to a large-scale festival like Coachella, but argues that such gigs help the group and its members survive in a world where making a living as a musician is extremely difficult. "If we were a bigger band perhaps that would make a difference," Nokes writes, "but withdrawing our spot in protest as one in the small percentage of womxn (let alone queer/feminist ppl) playing this festival that has (for better or worse) a big cultural impact? A better 'choice' I think is use the platform. Rather than the microscopic boycotting the gigantic, I actually look forward to using large platforms to say things that may not have been said in those settings before."
She went on to add:
Letâs all hope we will someday live in a world where folks with limited income wonât have to concede to some remote billionaire or odious parent company in order to do things like buy non-oppressive clothing, food, movie tickets, gasoline, alcohol, cellphones, etc., but as it stands, if we didnât play even local venues based on their ownerâs politics and / or sketchy business practices, we would be left with about 1.5 options.
The Stranger also reached out to fellow Seattle-based Coachella artist Car Seat Headrest (aka Will Toledo) for comment. We'll update this post when/if we hear back from him.
