Police On Coachella Traffic Detail; Festgoers Prefer Camping

Police are working overtime to keep an eye on huge crowds and monitor traffic during the 2009 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

This year, Indio PD are ready for the 10th annual music fest. Road closures will make traffic a nightmare, so they’ll focus on that.

But inside the festival, they’ll turn their attention to keeping drugs out.

They normally use what’s called “amnesty cans” where concertgoers can dump their drugs before going inside.

“We’re never going to eliminate it,” Ben Guitron with Indio Police concedes. “It’s just never going to happen but we know that we’re going to minimize it and make people think about it twice.”

Like any event, police and security will deal with their fair share of rowdy people, but, for the most part, police say concertgoers follow the rules.

Local hotels also hope Coachella fans will help boost business this weekend.

But people we talked to say they’re saving some cash and “camping out” instead.

Samuli Salmian is heading to the festival from Finland. While camping is working out better for Samuli, it’s a free trip that landed him a hotel room.

“We were not even thinking hotel,” said Salminan. We were just camping because it’s the name of the game in festivals.”

As a result, many hotels and motels say they’re seeing cancelations. That’s because it’s just $50 a night to camp at Coachella.