Desert Trip Festival Kicks Off Today with Sets by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan

Courtesy of GoldenvoiceOldchella is upon us! The star-studded classic-rock festival Desert Trip gets underway tonight at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California, with performances by Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. As previously reported, the event takes place October 7-9 and 14-16, with Dylan and The Stones also performing on October 14, Paul McCartney and Neil Young playing on October 8 and 15, and Roger Waters and The Who hitting the stage on October 9 and 16.

Set times for the bills are as follows: Dylan performs at 6:50 p.m. PT, and The Rolling Stones play at 9:40 p.m.; Neil Young and his backing group Promise of the Real begin at 6:15 p.m., and McCartney takes the stage at 9:15 p.m.; and The Who plays at 6:15 p.m., while Waters starts his concerts at 9:10 p.m.

Desert Trip was the brainchild of Paul Tollett, head of the music-promotion company Goldenvoice, which also launched the Coachella festival. Tollet recently chatted with Billboard about how the Desert Trip lineups came together.

“[The classic Dylan song] ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ made it a natural for Dylan and The Rolling Stones together in my head, plus I saw a picture of a young shirtless Mick Jagger looking at a Dylan album,” he explained. “Neil and Paul were close, so that seemed to fit well, and then The Who and Roger Waters together seemed insane. When I mentioned the running orders to the acts, all of them were cool with it right off the bat.”

Meanwhile, Tollett says that despite the advanced age of the artists playing Desert Trip, the event is appealing to generations of music fans.

“It’s probably the first show that the number of people bringing their kids is equal to the number that are bringing their parents,” he maintains.

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