Coachella Music Festival To Add a Second Weekend in 2012
The countdown to The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2012 just got a little more interesting.
On Tuesday, the festival sponsor, GoldenVoice, announced that for the first time, it is adding a second weekend of the festival.
But, there are still several steps that have to be taken before the City Council approves plans for the second festival.
The announcement of a second Coachella, and certainly there is excitement.
“Crazy,” said Estella Garza, a longtime Indio resident. “We barely handled the one that just went by.”
In April, the City of Indio hosted a one-time only heavy metal concert called, Big 4.
The Stagecoach Country Music Festival was a week later, but the entertainment season kicked off with Coachella Fest, with visitors topping 80,000 for all three days.
“It gets really heavy for us here in the home,” said Garza. “Wow, this is really news to me.”
Garza lives directly across from the Empire Polo Club on Monroe and Avenue 50.
She has lived in her home for more than 25 years and she said when Coachella rolls into town, there’s a lot of traffic and sometimes a lot of disorganization.
This year, she was denied by the City to allow permitted parking on her private lot.
Four residents applied for parking, and the only approved lot belongs to a family member of Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson, according to city officials.
Ramos Watson said she does not share ownership of that land.
“We figured, the more people that are able to attend these events, the less chances there are of scalping and those types of issues,” said Ramos Watson.
City staff and GoldenVoice have been discussing this announcement since April.
Recently, the City Council established a festival sub-committee to address concerns from the community over how the last festival was operated.
Ramos Watson and Sam Torres, a councilman, are the only two on the committee.
But Torres said he wasn’t told in advance that GoldenVoice planned extending Coachella Fest.
“Then I find out (Monday) that we have council members who will be negotiating with the folks at GoldenVoice and the Polo Grounds on revenue sharing agreements and those type of things, and I’m flabbergasted,” said Torres.
The City Council will have to eventually approve all of the plans for the new weekend.
The concert will now take place the second and third week of next April.
Presale tickets go on sale Friday, June 3rd, 10 months before the event. They will be available until June 10. For more information you check out the concert’s website: http://www.coachella.com/
