I-Team Investigation: Desert cities benefiting from music festivals

Indio Mayor Pro Tem Michael Wilson has called the city home for nearly four decades.

It’s a place he said that’s grown in popularity, in part to music.

“Anywhere I fly for city business or vacation, all you have to say is Coachella or Stagecoach, and they say,’Oh Indio,” Wilson said. “It has definitely put us on the map.”

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For almost 20 years, his hometown has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, thanks to the sights and sounds of festivals produced by Goldenvoice, including Coachella, Stagecoach, and Desert Trip.

Attractions, he said, that weren’t headliners at first.

“They lost a lot of money, and the crowds weren’t that great,” Wilson said. “But what they did do is they learned a lot from those concerts.”

But he said the concerts, over time, turned into moneymakers for promoters, businesses and the city.

“We had to be bold, and step out in a large way, and that’s what we did,” Wilson said. “It was definitely a risk, but it was a risk worth taking.”

After doing year-to-year contracts, Wilson said in 2013, he and other Indio city leaders entered into a long-term agreement with Goldenvoice for hosting music festivals.

Hundreds of pages, even outlining what the city gets in return.

KESQ reached out and dug through the document with city leaders, breaking down the funds received each year.

Wilson said it includes two different sums.

The first, equaling $3.5 million per year, Goldenvoice fully reimbursing public services.

“The taxpayer certainly couldn’t subsidize a concert series, and spend those extra dollars to make somebody else whole,” Wilson said.

The other sum equals about $2.1 million from three sources.

They include $250,000 in sales tax revenue, $500,000 in transient occupancy (TOT) tax revenue and about $1.4 million from ticket sales revenue.

Wilson said the $1.4 million in annual ticket sales revenue breaks down to about $6.21 a ticket. As far as where this money goes, he said the city uses it to help fund projects including improving roads, and building or improving parks.

“Last year in the first Desert Trip concert venue, that $900,000 which we benefited from went directly into street maintenance and repair,” Wilson said. “We’ve had a hard time getting street and road monies into any city in California to fix potholes and cracks. Parks, play structures and soccer fields, those types of things also benefit. We’re getting ready to do an about an $11 million upgrade to Miles Avenue Park in Downtown Indio. A lot of that money will go to a lot of what we’re doing in Miles Avenue Park as well.”

But what about other nearby desert cities?

La Quinta Code Compliance Supervisor Anthony Moreno, said while they don’t receive the same type of funds, they are reimbursed by promoters for any public services.

The latest bill, he said, totaled about $30,000.

“We don’t directly derive any revenue per say, but we do have an informal agreement with them,” Moreno said. “We submit our expenses, and if they’re found to be directly-related, to be reimbursed those costs.”

In a statement, Coachella City Manager Bill Pattison said they have a similar agreement, where the city is reimbursed about $40,000 annually:

“The City of Coachella has an agreement with Goldenvoice which pays the City A. 20 hours, per festival/event weekend for a Code Compliance Officer; B. 8 hours, per festival/event weekend for a Park Ranger to monitor camping in City parks; C. Two Police Officers 10 hours per day for each festival/event weekend and up to $10k per year to cover the costs associated with one planner and one engineer from the City to attend music festival planning events with the other eastern Coachella Valley Cities. Goldenvoice has been a great partner and we look forward to working with them in the future.”

And with increased attendance for this year’s festivals, surrounding city leaders said their future looks to grow as well.

“There’s a lot of benefits that aren’t really seen, but are actual and they happen,” Wilson said. “It’s been a great thing for us for the City of Indio. Three weekends of a little disturbance, with Desert Trip four weekends of a little disturbance, you get the rest of the year of these benefits citywide that most every other city out there doesn’t get.”

Indio city leaders provided the number of tickets sold for Goldenvoice-produced festivals in 2015 and 2016.

In 2015, 266,750 tickets were sold between both weekends for Coachella and Stagecoach.

In 2016, 413,961 tickets were sold between both weekends for Coachella, Stagecoach, and both weekends for Desert Trip. 143,318 tickets were sold for Desert Trip specifically.

According to the 2016 Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau/Coachella Valley Economic Partnership report, the estimated spending per person ranges from $500 to $2,000, and $70 to $75 million within the city of Indio.