The corporate that places on the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Pageant publicly apologized this week for traffic issues that left campers ready of their automobiles for hours to entry the competition grounds on Weekend 1 of this 12 months’s occasion. In hopes of stopping a repeat, he mentioned, fixes might be in place earlier than Weekend 2 begins Friday.
George Cunningham, senior vp of public security with Goldenvoice, defined the dilemma — and the steps being taken to deal with it — whereas chatting with the La Quinta Metropolis Council on Tuesday.
His look got here after automobile campers described large visitors wait occasions, upwards of 12 hours, moving into the Empire Polo Membership on Thursday, April 10, as large strains of automobiles backed up surrounding roads, significantly Monroe and Madison streets.
A whole lot of automobiles wait in a sequence of strains to get by way of a safety screening space earlier than arriving on the automobile tenting grounds on the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Pageant in Indio, Calif., Thursday, April 10, 2025.
Cunningham advised the council that the prolonged backups had been partially attributable to the early arrival of campers on Thursday morning “not ever letting up” all through the day.
“Yearly, we sometimes have a lull (on Thursday) between 1:00 and 6:00 within the night, the place it simply dies down,” Cunningham mentioned. “We did not have that. All people wished to come back early.”
Cunningham mentioned the competition’s first Thursday night time efficiency, with DJ Chris Lake delivering a set on the campgrounds, prompted folks to come back sooner than standard. He famous that by 4:30 p.m. Thursday this 12 months, the competition had 6,300 campers parked within the competition grounds, whereas on a typical 12 months, the competition wouldn’t see that many campers till hours later Thursday.
The competition additionally handled what Cunningham described as “staffing challenges” and couldn’t absolutely employees its 32 tolling stations used for automobile safety screening Thursday morning.
“We had six tolls that had been down,” Cunningham mentioned. “We’ve addressed that. We’ve plans if the entity, the companion that we work with that staffs these, is unable to satisfy it at that shift time, we have already got a secondary plan in place to have the ability to increase that and have that staffed with different people.”
For Coachella Weekend 2 and Stagecoach, organizers are additionally including 12 extra tollbooths for safety checks at Lot 2A close to Madison Avenue and Avenue 50, based on Cunningham.
“We will get (the automobiles) off the streets, and we’ll get them in heaps so we are able to reduce the impression on the neighborhood,” Cunningham mentioned.
“Am I guaranteeing that there’s not going to be 100% no impression? No, I can not provide you with that assure, however I can provide you a assure that the impression might be many occasions lower than you witnessed this previous Thursday,” he added.
Cunningham mentioned the plan might be reviewed and probably altered heading into the Stagecoach nation music competition — slated for April 25-27 on the similar venue — if issues “are to not the usual that we’d like them to be.”
Council member criticizes ‘unacceptable’ visitors points, lack of loos
The visitors points drew the actual ire of Councilmember Kathleen Fitzpatrick, who lives close to the Empire Polo Membership. (The competition grounds are positioned in Indio however border La Quinta to the south and west.)
“I reside proper there, and I’ve lived there for 19 years,” Fitzpatrick mentioned on the assembly. “Thursday was unacceptable.”
“It was unacceptable as a result of I discover it reprehensible to ask all of those folks into our neighborhood after which don’t have any place for them to make use of amenities for restrooms, no place to get water,” she added. “It is a whole embarrassment.”
Fitzpatrick mentioned she heard from residents in her space “calling me and telling me about — which I had already seen — the human waste on the aspect of the road the place folks had been pressured to bathroom.”
“How do you reconcile that in our metropolis?” Fitzpatrick mentioned. “It is one factor to say we’re having an exquisite competition (and) we’re the leaders within the subject. Nevertheless it’s one other factor to say we do not actually give a crap in regards to the metropolis of La Quinta, as a result of that is what it regarded like.”
Cunningham replied by saying competition organizers care strongly about Coachella’s impression on the encompassing neighborhood.
Mayor Professional Tem Deborah McGarrey requested Cunningham how visitors updates are shared with festivalgoers earlier than their arrival, and he or she famous that visitors was nonetheless backed up alongside Avenue 54 round 9 p.m. Thursday final week.
Mayor Linda Evans mentioned that visitors appeared to go extra easily the remainder of the weekend, and he or she pointed to “Wind-chella” in 2018, when excessive winds delayed the campground’s opening, for instance of a previous hurdle that was overcome.
“I believe a number of years go by actually easily, after which one thing happens,” Evans mentioned. “This 12 months, it is the add of a giant performer within the campground space, so it’s a brand new flex that folks weren’t used to, mixed with the state of affairs and the issues and the problems that occurred.”
Extra: 7 most memorable moments of Coachella 2025 Weekend 1
Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Attain him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This text initially appeared on Palm Springs Desert Solar: Coachella organizers issue public apology for Weekend 1 camping delays
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