Opening Weekend of Coachella Festival Is Talk Of The Music World

The heavy westbound traffic on interstate 10 from Jeefferson Street late Monday morning was an indication of the amount of people returning home from this weekend’s Coachella Festival in Indio.

And then there are those fans who came from overseas to experience the music.

“It was our first year. Just absolutley amazing. Like we come all the way from London. It’s just so worth the long trip,” said Tom Bartlett.

Bartlett and his friend Emerick Rospigliosi were still buzzing about the festival as they were about to catch a cab to the airport.

Like many who witnessed the closing night performance by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, they were astonished when the rap stars were joined on stage by a hologram of Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed almost 16 years ago.

“That was crazy, didn’t expect that,” said Bartlett. “Don’t know how they did it, looked awesome, sounded really good as well.”

Rospigliosi added. “About first five minutes trying to figure if they’ve got a double on stage or that good technology. Pretty much never gonna happen again.”

Like the two Brits, Roxanne Collimore came a long way to witness Coachella for the first time. She’s from Sydney, Australia.

Along with the music, she enjoyed the peaceful vibe at the Empire Polo Grounds.

“You just get to know everyone around you and everyone is chilled out and so easy,” said Collimore. “It’s just a nice easy three days.”

Still, not everyone behaved among the 85,000 in attendance.

The Indio Police Department made 134 arrests. Other than a couple of exceptions, all were alcohol or drug related.

“You look at 85,000 and 134 arrests, I think it’s still pretty good,” said Indio Police spokesman Ben Guitron. Obviously everyone would like no arrests, but that’s the case of reality, that’s why law enforcement is there.”

Now it’s cleanup time to do it all again this coming weekend. Same lineup of acts and same number of fans are expected.

In the meantime, with music still in their heads, opening weekend attendees are already thinking about a return trip to Coachella.

“I’ll definitely comeback,” said Collimore. “Great to get a group together and do it again.”

And for Rospigliosi, it’s first things first. “I’ll be resting a while before I think about that.” Will I come back? Yeah, if I can afford it, yeah,” said Rospigliosi.