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Fortnite and Coachella are collaborating in a major way - Coachella Island! I recently sat down with Sam Schoonover, Innovation Lead at Coachella, to chat about the incredible update that's coming to Epic Games’ incredibly popular battle royale title. While thousands will be flocking to the most popular music and arts festival in the United States, gamers will have a different destination in mind.
The Coachella-inspired island will officially kick off in Fortnite on April 14, 2023 at 3:00 pm ET, bringing a wealth of music, events, and fun to gamers across the world. There will be team-based events, a speedrun platforming challenge, and the music stylings of Porter Robinson. Of course, there will also be new outfits to add to your collection. It’s certainly a great time to be a Fortnite fan, with this collaboration set to be released very soon.
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Sam Schoonover discusses Coachella Island coming to Fortnite
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Q. Sam, thank you for taking the time to chat with us! For those who aren't familiar, can you tell our audience what Coachella Island is in Fortnite?
Sam: Coachella Island is a new extension of the Coachella Music Festival that lives in Fortnite. As Coachella continues to expand beyond the physical festival grounds, there are popular platforms like Fortnite that can bring the Coachella experience to millions around the world.
Q. Fortnite is no stranger to having appearances by popular musical acts, but what, in particular, led to this partnership?
Sam: Coachella and Fortnite are both entertainment experiences that are fun, creative, and highly tapped into the culture. With so much crossover, a partnership between these two companies just makes sense.
Q. Coachella and Fortnite have in common that they are two of the biggest acts in their genres - music festivals and online gaming. Have there been any talks about perhaps marrying the two things to have a digital Coachella?
Sam: We see this year’s debut of Coachella Island as just the very first step of Coachella’s journey in gaming. As the capabilities of Fortnite Creative continue to increase with UEFN, it’s Coachella’s goal to continue finding new ways to showcase, empower, and reward gaming creators and musicians.
Q. Coachella Island is also going to be a home for content creators to shine. If something fantastic and viral comes as a result of this, would it perhaps be displayed at a future Coachella?
Sam: We’ll see! It’s definitely a goal to continue creating more opportunities for sync points between what happens at Coachella physically and virtually.
Q. Coachella Island in Fortnite will have exciting team-based mini-games, parkour challenges, and of course, merchandise. What sort of input did your team have with bringing your festival to the digital space?
Sam: We understand Coachella and what makes it special. To translate that into gaming, we worked with the amazing creators at Alliance Studios, who natively understand what works best in Fortnite Creative. Unsurprisingly, there's a lot of crossover between music festivals and gaming experiences!
Q. What is your favorite part of Coachella Island? Are there any secrets or Easter eggs that you're looking forward to players finding?
Sam: There’s a lot of fun Easter eggs! Players should head to the top of Spectra and play around on the playground to find secret spaces.
Q. Alongside the reveal of Coachella Island, there's also going to be an Augmented Reality livestream from Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK, and Gorillaz. Will this be viewable on Coachella Island or exclusively on the Coachella YouTube channel?
Sam: The AR Livestream for Bad Bunny and Gorillaz will be viewable exclusively on the YouTube Livestream.
Q. Of course, it wouldn't be a Coachella event without music. This in-game event will feature music from Porter Robinson. Is Porter a fan of Fortnite? Were they excited to find out their music would be in the game?
Sam: Yeah! Porter Robinson has a history of being innovative at the intersection of music and gaming. As soon as we learned that he was in the lineup, he was the obvious choice to soundtrack Coachella Island and his team has been great to work with.
Q. With these two titans coming together, has there been any talk of a digital Coachella, perhaps within Fortnite itself?
Sam: We see this year’s debut of Coachella Island as just the very first step of Coachella’s journey in gaming. As the capabilities of Fortnite Creative continue to increase with UEFN, it’s Coachella’s goal to continue finding new ways to showcase, empower, and reward gaming creators and musicians.
Q. What is the future of Coachella and Fortnite? Do you think these kinds of partnerships could continue in the future, to bring brand new experiences to fans around the world?
Sam: We know that gaming creators are some of today’s most exciting, talented, and influential artists. We look to these creatives to help inform the future of music events and gaming so that we can continue bringing great music to fans around the world.
Players can explore this brand new collaborative area on April 14, 2023 in Fortnite through the “Epic’s Picks” Discover row or by using the island code 5449-4207-12803.
The Battle Bus is heading into Fortnite! Check out the final Fortnite item shop today!
