Neighbors React To Coachella Fest

When a two-weekend music festival attracting tens of thousands of people parks itself just around the corner from your home, neighbors can find an easy reason to complain. However, that’s not the case for many people we talked to.

“Its very well organized. I’ve been going around this year. It’s better than it has been the last couple years,” Dave Ison, who lives near Coachella Fest, said.

The city’s efforts to keep the growing festival tamed seem noticed.

“There’s more security. I think they’ve done a better job at traffic flow,” Ison said.

It’s not always smooth sailing and quiet times for everyone.

“The buses, when we’re asleep, we can’t sleep. I had my window open, my back door open, and all the smell of the gas was coming in through my back door,” Sonia Mejia, who lives near Coachella Fest, said. “I tried to get into the neighborhood and it takes you half an hour or more to get to your house, because of the traffic.”

Yet, neighbors say they can handle it.

“About 1:00 it was starting to wrap up and it got kind of loud, but it doesn’t bother me. It’s good for the community really,” Norman, who lives near Coachella Fest, said.

The tunes that festival goers love — neighbors have the chance for a free seat.

“You don’t have to go anywhere you can just sit and enjoy the music,” Ison said.

Though neighbors are tolerating and understanding of Coachella and its 2012 expansion, “I hope they don’t continue it, like two, three, four weeks, five weeks. That’ll get a little bit tough, but I think the way they’re doing it now is fine.”

Indio Police say they made 39 arrests on day one of the festival, about 10 more than last year. All of the arrests were drug or alcohol related.