Arts & Entertainment
Second Round of Coachella Festival Goes Smoothly; 171 Total Arrests Both Weekends
Only 26 people were arrested on Sunday, primarily for alcohol violations, during the Coachella Valley Music Festival.
The second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival appeared Monday to have gone off as smoothly as the first.
A total of 80 people were arrested, including 26 on Sunday, said Indio Police Department spokesman Ben Guitron. There were 91 arrests the previous weekend.
"Every day we had some drug-related offense. But overall, alcohol is the choice of violating the law," Guitron said.
Find out what's happening in Palm Desertwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The number of arrests is relatively low, considering that each weekend of the festival attracted around 160,000 people, police said.
Guitron reported that festival security this weekend went smoothly.
The sold-out two-weekend festival, which is staged yearly at Indio's 78- acre Empire Polo Club, ended Sunday night as it had the previous week -- with the famed Los Angeles-based Red Hot Chili Peppers as the closing act.
On Friday, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blur and the Stone Roses were the featured performers, with Phoenix and the Postal Service topping the bill on Saturday.
Sunday's shows were held amid sunny conditions with light winds and highs reaching in the mid-90s. Similar conditions, though with slightly lower temperatures, are expected for the three-day annual Stagecoach Festival starting Friday.
According to a 2012 analysis by Palm Desert's Development Management Group, the economic impact in the Coachella Valley last year from both Coachella and the Stagecoach country music festival was $254.4 million -- $89.21 million in Indio alone.
