Here’s your Stagecoach opening day and traffic information guide
Country music fans will fill Indio’s Empire Polo Clubtoday for the Stagecoach country music festival.
The festival, which runs through Sunday, will be headlined by TobyKeith, Hank Williams Jr. and Trace Adkins today, Lady Antebellum, DierksBentley and Dwight Yoakam on Saturday and the Zac Brown Band, Lonestar and theCharlie Daniels Band on Sunday.
Today’s first set starts at 12:20 p.m. at the Palomino Stage, one of three.
Other acts for the seventh annual festival include Darius Rucker,Thompson Square, Phil Vassar, the Blue Sky Riders and Jeff Bridges and theAbiders.
More than 55,000 people attended last year’s Stagecoach, which expandedfrom two to three days for the first time. The festival brought in more than$13 million in gross sales, according to Billboard magazine.
Stagecoach’s sister festival, the Coachella Valley Music and ArtsFestival, was held the previous two weekends at the polo grounds.
The gates open at 11 a.m., and motorists should expect delays whentraveling through Indio and La Quinta, Indio Community Services Manager JimCurtis said.
Roads closed today through Sunday include:
— Avenue 49 between Hjorth and Monroe streets
— Avenue 50 between Madison and Jackson streets
— Hjorth between avenues 49 and 50
— Madison between avenues 49 and 52
Traffic is expected to back up on:
— Southbound Jefferson, Washington and Monroe, from Interstate 10 toAvenue 52
— Highway 111 at Jefferson and Monroe
— I-10 eastbound exits at Jefferson and Monroe
For alternate north-south routes, drivers can use Washington, Jackson,Calhoun Street and Golf Center Parkway, Curtis said. Alternate east-west routesinclude Miles Avenue, Fred Waring Drive and avenues 52 and 48.
The pickup and drop point for taxis and others will be at Avenue 52 andMadison.
No pedestrian access will be allowed on Monroe and Madison betweenavenues 49 and 52. Pedestrian access will be available at the corners of Avenue49 and Monroe and Avenue 52 and Madison. Golf carts won’t be permitted on anyof those streets.
The city set up a non-emergency concert hotline: (760) 541-7800. Peoplewith complaints or concerns can email concertinfoindio.org.
