Cee Lo Green during his now infamous performance at the 2011 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Credit: AP Photo

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the multi-artist rock event that kicks off the yearly festival season, will expand to two weekends, according to Paul Tollett, head of Goldenvoice, the AEG-own promoter that produces the April fest.

Unlike the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which also stretches over two weekends in the Spring, Coachella’s expansion will feature the same acts over both weekends. “We will attempt to produce two identical festival weekends,” read a statement initially released to the Los Angeles Times and then posted on the official website. “That means same lineup, same art, same place, different people.”  Quite honestly, that seems like a routing nightmare as acts will have to fill in the dates in between the two weekends in a way that gets them back to where they started.

The 2012 edition of Coachella will take place, as always, at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., outside of Palm Springs. Dates are April 13-15, 2012 and April 20-22, 2012. It’s unclear what this will mean for Stagecoach, the country cousin to Coachella, which takes place on the same site often the next weekend after Coachella.

While individual tours have suffered greatly over the past two years, festivals such as Coachella have thrived. In fact, Coachella’s statement says the reason for the expansion is because of the success of this year’s event: “We know many of you were unable to attend this year's festival because passes sold out much sooner than anticipated. We were truly surprised by the overwhelming response and remain honored by your passion and enthusiasm. We also know some of you purchased through non legitimate sources and were inconvenienced, gouged or totally scammed.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, this year’s Coachella sold out in six days. Headliners included Kings of Leon, Lauryn Hill, The Black Keys, Kanye West, Duran Duran, Mumford & Sons and Arcade Fire.

Three-day passes for the 2012 edition go on sale June 3 at 10 a.m. PST via the event's website and are $269 plus fees.

Are you excited about a two-weekend festival?  Share your thoughts below.