If you’ve been to a concert or live event in the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve used your phone to buy tickets. Now, ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and StubHub are expanding further, and slowly integrating NFTs into their traditional ticketing methods. Why? Well, NFTs offer several unique advantages over traditional tickets. For starters, they are much harder to counterfeit. NFTs are stored on the blockchain and can be verified by anyone. Additionally, NFTs can’t be lost or stolen like traditional tickets can. This has led many artists and event organizers to start experimenting with NFTs to give unique experiences to their audiences along with providing alternative and perhaps a safer ticketing method.

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is certainly one of the most respected, and has gained a reputation as a taste-maker within the summer music festival scene. So it was big news when Coachella announced on Feb. 1 that along with its traditional ticket passes it was offering a limited number of NFTs for sale. Some of these NFT’s include lifetime Coachella access as a part of the Coachella Keys Collection, many of which are being auctioned for tens of thousands of dollars apiece.

NFTs or non-fungible tokens, are one-of-a-kind digital tokens that can be bought and re-sold on the blockchain. When NFTs first burst onto the scene they were mainly being used to buy and sell digital artwork but are now also used to create and unique experiences for concert goers. The launch of the Coachella Keys Collection has introduced a virtual raffle ticket called ‘The Key’ which gives exclusive offers that are only accessible to holders of the NFT.

The Coachella Keys NFT Collection includes passes to one festival weekend every April, and Coachella produced virtual experiences forever. These keys also include unique experiences for 2022 like front and center views at the Coachella Stage, lifetime Safari camping, or a dinner prepared by a professional chef in the Rose Garden. Bids for the ‘Key to the Safari’ which include accommodations in the festival’s most luxurious camping area, are at $57,500 and rising. Other bids for all-inclusive culinary experiences and private transportation were currently going for $52,500.

With the initial buzz created by the Coachella’s Keys Collection, it’s likely that more and more promoters and live event organizers will continue to find creative ways to create exclusive access to music and live experiences for customers via digital tokens such as NFTs.