Stagecoach Pulling Into Town

The three-day Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival will get underway in Indio Friday, with acts ranging from Sara Evans to the Oakridge Boys.

The sold-out festival at the Empire Polo Club runs through Sunday, and around 50,000 people are expected daily. Headliners include Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, ZZ Top, Tim McGraw, Merle Haggard, Dierks Bentley, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Greg Allman and Steve Earle.

Preparations at the polo grounds for Stagecoach, which started in 2007, began soon after the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival ended last Sunday. Both festivals are produced by Los Angeles-based promoter Goldenvoice.

Starting Friday, several Indio and La Quinta roads will be closed, and city officials expect delays on some well-traveled routes to and from the polo grounds.

Here’s a rundown of the closed roads:

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

Delays are expected on southbound Jefferson, Washington and Monroe streets, from Interstate 10 to Avenue 52; on Highway 111 at Jefferson and Monroe streets; and on the exits from eastbound I-10 at Jefferson and Monroe. North and southbound travelers should use Washington, Jackson, Calhoun streets and Golf Center Parkway, city officials said.

Drivers trying to move east and west should use Fred Waring Drive, Miles Avenue and avenues 48 and 52, according to the city.

Taxis will be at the southwest corner of Avenue 49 and Monroe, and concert-goers can be picked up and dropped off at Avenue 52 and Madison.

Pedestrians and golf carts will not be allowed on Monroe between avenues 49 and 52, but pedestrians will be allowed access at Avenue 49 and Monroe and Avenue 52 and Madison.

To avoid traffic on I-10 west, locals should use alternates routes such as Country Club Drive, Varner Road and Fred Waring Drive, he said. Interstate traffic backed up both Mondays following the Coachella festival weekends.

Caltrans officials advised motorists to avoid unnecessary trips on Interstate 10 between Beaumont and Indio through Monday. In particular, the agency urged people to avoid driving on the stretch of freeway on Friday, and between Sunday afternoon and Monday night, when the bulk of attendees will be coming to and leaving the festival. Officials suggested using State Route 74, or Highway 62 as alternate routes.

Real-time traffic information is available at quickmap.dot.ca.gov.

In all, 226 people were arrested during the two weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, mostly for drug and alcohol-related offenses. That figure was up more than 36 percent from the 166 arrests made during the 2014 festival.

The Coachella festival was also marked by tragedy when 23-year-old concertgoer Jannick Andersen of San Diego was hit and killed by a train April 11 while walking on railroad tracks in Indio, about four miles northeast of the festival grounds.

High temperatures for Stagecoach are forecast to be in the high-70s to low-80s under partly cloudy skies on Friday and Saturday, before spiking into the mid-80s amid sunny conditions on Sunday.

Information about the Stagecoach festival is available at www.stagecoachfestival.com. People with questions or festival-related concerns can call the city at (760) 541-7800 or send an email to concertinfo@indio.org.

– City News Service. (Image via Shutterstock)