4xFAR Music & Adventure Festival Bringing Top Talent, Fly Fishing, Land Rover Defender & More To Coachella Valley

“People want to throw this event into the festival category. It’s not really a festival, it’s a curated experience for adventure seekers,” says David Corso, whose Corso Agency is producing the event at the Empire Grand Oasis Jan. 18-19.

4xFAR features the new Land Rover Defender model, with 15 acres of off-road track as well as experiential offerings including yoga sessions, fly fishing, wildness and navigation courses, coffee tasting, rock climbing and more on site for an all-day experience. On board are outdoor leaders such as U.S. volleyball star Gabby Reece and big wave surfer (and husband) Laird Hamilton. 

But it also has a real music lineup, topped by Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Q-Tip & Mark Ronson, Kaytranada, Kurt Vile And The Violators, Young The Giant, and Sofi Tukker, which is no surprise considering the involvement of Corso, which has produced the Heineken House at Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival and did Beyonce’s Homecoming party. 

“They were searching for the right company to do what they wanted to do, which was a brand event but with a music festival experience,” Corso says, noting the prime location, with a nearly 20-acre field with full mountain backdrop during a very pleasant period in the Southern California desert.

About 5,000 people are expected for the somewhat exclusive event that sees Land Rover aiming to put on an unforgettable experience rather than the usual for-profit, ticket sales-driven music festival. 

“It’s not about having a giant Land Rover badge on the show,” he says. “There’s obviously a Land Rover element to it, but they understand it’s about delivering a really cool experience where people walk away and go ‘Wow that was awesome.’ That’s what I live for.”

“If you’d have asked me 25 years ago if I thought festivals would be what they are today, the answer would be absolutely not,” Corso says. “I saw it coming enough that I got into the space, because there was a need for what I wanted to do with cool brand integration that doesn’t just hit you in the face with a big stage banner. But I didn’t see it getting as big as it is today, and a lot of that has to do with Coachella. 

“They really pioneered in the last 20 years the demand for that brand integration, they were one of the shows that drove that, because they do such a great job and understand the value of these experiences.”

“Not all brands understand and see the value in it without having to over-brand, and that’s what will most turn a consumer off. Today’s consumer also wants to buy product and brands that have the same beliefs as them. That’s something important to us as well,” Corso adds, mentioning sustainability efforts at the event including no single-use plastics and even sustainable toilets by Ecozoic that turn waste into fertilizer. “It’s really changing so the brands believe in the same things we believe in.”

As for the lineup, Corso, whose agency also does the talent buying, says it may seem scattered but adds up. 

“Although it’s an eclectic lineup, which is unusual for a show like this – unless you’re the size of a Coachella and can book every genre with 125,000 people every day – the fact is there’s a reason for all of our artists and it all fits together. 

“Some really cool things are going to happen at the show that are not planned officially but we’re working on it. This is up close and personal and it’s going to be really cool.”