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Heat Accompanies Music On Day Two, Week Two Of Coachella Fest

Day Two of Week Two at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will be back to its sizzling self, after getting off to a cool start to last weekend.

Highs at the Empire Polo Club topped out at 102 degrees Friday, compared to the upper 60s a week ago when the concert series got under way amid the tail-end of a late-season storm.

For the first time this year, the immensely popular festival, whose roots date to 1999, is being held over two weekends, with the same bands playing in essentially the same lineup.

Highlights of Day One Week Two included a tribute to Levon Helm, drummer and vocalist for the Band, who died Thursday of throat cancer at age 71. John Fogerty, a kindred spirit from Creedence Clearwater Revival, joined Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys — the headliners for the day — for a rendition of the Band’s classic hit “The Weight.”

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff was back for a second show, along with the English band Madness, indie producer/singer-songwriter M. Ward, Swedish House Mafia, Mazzy Star and Afrojack. The full lineup consisted of 45 acts.

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke did a little deejaying at the Ace Hotel Friday. Radiohead is the headline act tonight. Other big Day Two draws will be the ethereal Feist, Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird, French house music producer and deejay David Guetta, Bon Iver, and the Shins, among others. A handful of people got overheated in the triple-digit weather Friday, but no serious medical emergencies were reported due to the heat. About 25 people were arrested for drug- and alcohol-related crimes, down from 39 last Friday, according to Indio police.

On the final day of Week One, a man from Woodland Hills was stabbed in a fight over a woman in the Sahara Tent about 3 p.m., and police made a separate assault arrest last weekend, but charges apparently were not filed in either case. Last weekend, a total of 134 arrests were made.

Highs today are forecast to be about the same as Friday, around 102 degrees. But the festival promoter Goldenvoice has long been prepared for the desert heat, providing water misters and plenty of shade in the form of tent stages.

Attendance last weekend was estimated at 85,000-90,000 per day. The polo fields were first used a rock concert venue in 1993 when Pearl Jam, protesting what it contended was Ticketmaster’s lock on concert tickets, performed in front of about 25,000 there.

Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg will be back to close the festival Sunday, when the high could hit 104 degrees. Slain rapper Tupac Shakur made a virtual appearance on stage last week, in the form of a hologram.

The festival draws people from around the world, roughly doubling the local population and creating some 15,000 temporary jobs, Indio Mayor Glenn Miller said.

Tickets sold out in less than three hours the day they went on sale in January. Three-day passes started at $285.

Miller said organizers will bus 25,000 people to the festival grounds from the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, 10,000 more than last year. There will be new shuttle bus routes throughout the valley to cut down on traffic to hotels and allow people to stop at restaurants and stores, Miller said. Some shuttle and camping passes are available through the festival’s website, www.coachella.com.

The city of Indio released a “traffic alerts” map outlining streets that will be closed or that should be avoided because of traffic delays.

Avenue 50 between Jackson and Madison streets, Avenue 49 between Monroe and Madison and Madison between avenues 49 and 50 will be closed through Sunday. Delays were expected on Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe streets and avenues 50 and 52 on those days.

Goldenvoice’s country music festival, Stagecoach, is set for April 27-29 at the polo club.

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