Coachella 2017 Weekend 2: Road Closures, Set Times And More... Get Ready!

INDIO, CA - Scores of music lovers were rolling into the desert on Friday as the second and final weekend of the 2017 installment of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival gets underway. Some 125,000 people are expected at the Empire Polo Grounds, which means anyone in the area should be prepared for extra traffic.

Gates opened at 11 a.m. Friday. The event runs through late Sunday at the Empire Polo Grounds, 81800 Avenue 51.

Friday headliner Radiohead will look to best a Weekend 1 performance that had the band playing through technical issues, with audio cutting out, prompting the band to leave the stage on two occasions. Nonetheless, Radiohead, who previously headlined the festival in 2004 and 2012, gave the sell-out crowd a run-through of their discography, including songs from their latest album, "A Moon Shaped Pool." Friday evening's 10:35 p.m. set will mark the last date of the band's U.S. tour.

Traffic began building up Thursday as festival goers made their way into the desert to set up their camping spots. However, the bulk of the congestion was expected Friday morning on Interstate 10 between Beaumont and Indio, according to Caltrans, who urged drivers to also look out for heavy traffic Sunday afternoon through Monday night. Drivers were also advised to map out alternate routes just in case, including state Route 62 and state Route 74.

In addition, the northbound 15 Freeway at Duncan Canyon in Fontana will be closed from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, possibly forcing drivers to take alternate routes nearby and exacerbating traffic in the area.

Locally, Indio police will be handling numerous traffic closures surrounding the venue.

Road closures will be at:

• Avenue 49, between Hjorth and Monroe streets;
• Avenue 50, between Madison and Jackson streets;
• Hjorth Street, between Avenue 49 and Avenue 50; and
• Madison Street, between Avenue 49 and Avenue 52.

In addition, no pedestrians or pedestrian festival access will be allowed on Monroe Street between Avenue 49 and Avenue 52 or Madison Street between Avenue 50 and Avenue 52.

Pedestrians can enter the polo grounds at the corner of Avenue 49 and Monroe Street and the corner of Avenue 52 and Madison Street.

Attendance

An estimated 110,000 people attended the festival each day through the first weekend, according to police, though up to 125,000 are allowed through the gates, thanks to the Indio City Council's unanimous decision to expand the festival's attendance cap from 99,000 to 125,000.

Either way, this year's event is expected to be the best-attended Coachella festival in history. The big crowds this weekend will have to contend with a hot spell set to hit the region. Friday will be sunny with a high of 92 degrees, but Saturday and Sunday are both expected to be closer to 97 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Set Times

For those headed out to the event, here are the set times. You can search by artist here.

Last Week's Arrests

Concert-goers are advised to stay hydrated-- and watch their phones. Last weekend, 255 people were arrested, and among them was a man who allegedly pick-pocketed more than 100 attendees and stole their phones, police said.

New York resident Reinaldo De Jesus Henao was arrested last Friday after being tailed by several festival goers who noticed their phones were missing and utilized the "Find My Phone" app, which provides users with the GPS location of their device, to locate Henao.

Henao was allegedly found with a backpack containing more than 100 cellphones, which have since been returned to their rightful owners or turned over to the lost and found area of the concert site.

A second man from New York, also was arrested during the first festival weekend, allegedly with about 10 stolen cellphones.

Anyone who loses items during the festival was urged to search for their lost possessions on https://www.coachella.com/guid... .

– City News Service contributed to this report / Photos courtesy of Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2017