Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival organizers are apologizing for the traffic flub that had residents and festivalgoers in precarious situations over the weekend.
“I apologize for what took place, to your residents and the impact that it had to the community. Goldenvoice, and the partnerships we have with not only La Quinta, Indio and all the surrounding Coachella Valley cities — we take great pride in that partnership and the ability to plan together and address the challenges that come forward,” George Cunningham, senior vice president of public safety with Goldenvoice, said when he addressed the La Quinta City Council on Tuesday.
La Quinta City Council Member Kathleen Fitzpatrick didn’t mince words when she responded saying, “I find it reprehensible to invite all of these people into our community and then have no place for them to use facilities, for restrooms, no place to get water, and it’s a total embarrassment.”
Fitzpatrick said she’s lived in the neighborhood adjacent to the festival grounds for 19 years. She asked for a better plan, as last weekend was only the first weekend of Coachella. Festivalgoers will be back for weekend two on Thursday night and Friday morning this week, and then country fans will make their way out to the Empire Polo Club once more, April 25-27 for the Stagecoach Country Music Festival.
“I felt so bad for them, and then I felt bad for the residents who live in my area, who were then calling me and telling me about what I had already seen: the human waste on the side of the street where people were forced to toilet,” Fitzpatrick said. “How do you reconcile that in our city? It’s one thing to say, ‘we’re having a wonderful festival with the leaders in the field.’ But it’s another thing to say, we don’t really give a crap about the city of La Quinta.’”
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By Thursday night of Coachella weekend one, the day before the annual music festival popped off in Indio, social media was flooded with posts from frustrated festivalgoers who said they’d been waiting up to 10 and 12 hours to get through the line and into the campsite. According to the social media users, they did not have access to water or restrooms while they were stuck in line, some car campers ran out of gas, others reported their cars overheated or were even sideswiped as people tried to cut in line or swerve around them.
Cunningham said this year’s traffic issues were caused by an influx of campers arriving early that never let up, and that in years prior, there had typically been a lull in arrivals in the early evening. According to Cunningham, there were 6,300 campers already parked inside the campgrounds by 4:30 p.m., and in recent years, the festival didn’t see that many car campers until later in the evening.
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Plans to avoid Coachella “Carmageddon” for weekend two of the festival include adding another toll plaza where wristbands are scanned and vehicles are searched before campers gain entry. While the festival previously had 32 toll plazas in which they processed campers, this weekend it is adding 12 more, which organizers say will be able to generate around nine and a half miles of traffic flow, which equates to about 3,500 vehicles. They’re expecting about 12,000 vehicles for weekend two, and are taking “an active approach” in collaboration with the Indio Police Department and Riverside Sheriff’s Department, to get the vehicles off the streets in a more timely manner and make the whole process run more smoothly for campers and residents.
La Quinta Mayor Linda Evans responded to Cunningham’s address by commending organizers for taking quick action, and admitted that although she’s more of a Stagecoach person herself, she thinks the festivals are great for the community.
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