Author: Bruce Fessier / Source: Desert Sun
What to expect at this year’s Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival in Indio. Wochit
This new Stagecoach has brought a whole new country into the city of Indio.
The five-day transformation from the massive Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival into Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival by the Los Angeles-based Goldenvoice company is always shocking to people who go to both events.
Instead of surreal and sometimes psychedelic installation art of Coachella, there are giant cowboy boots and a bronze bucking horse. The attire morphs from flower crowns and H&M branded fashions to red, white and blue everything – including shirts, pants, bandannas and long flowing sashes bearing the U.S. flag.
T-shirts send a completely different message than Coachella. One man wore a t-shirt with a picture of President Trump and the words, “Dilly Dilly.” Other t-shirts reflected the Stagecoach crowd’s love of drinking, with messages including, “Feeling Single, Seeing Double,” and “Beer-Drinkin’ Babe.”
A merchandise store called Countryfried also reflected the country preference for self-determination with rope displays proclaiming, “Locked & loaded” and “We don’t dial 911.”
Other Stagecoach shops had names like High Class Hillbilly, Trendy and Tipsy, and True Religion, featuring custom embroidery.
Coachella and Stagecoach, both based at Indio’s Empire Polo Club, are the valley’s biggest parties. Coachella maximized its permit for 125,000 people while Stagecoach has not sold out its capacity for 85,000 people, including workers and guests.
And the party attitudes are vastly different. The presence of cannabis was apparent at both festivals, but it was no big deal at the two-weekend Coachella. At Stagecoach, lead singer Fred McNeal of the Georgia Satellites, known for their 1986 hit, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” said he smelled so much marijuana, “I think I’m getting a contact high!”
Stagecoach has food and beverage areas on both sides of its Mane Stage called “Saloon North” and “Saloon South.” There’s a Budweiser Country Club, a giant Beer Barn and a HonkyTonk Dance Hall venue elsewhere on the grounds. The children’s attraction, located inside the old Sahara Tent at Coachella, is dubbed the Half-Pint Hootenanny.
The proprietor of True Religion offered a customer a beer and said, “It’s as important as the music: Cold beer!”
That hasn’t changed during the 12-year history of Stagecoach. But the style of country has changed. There’s way more modern country now, and much less niche, roots-styled Americana.
The Mustang Tent, which featured different types of bluegrass, has gone the way of the buffalo on the American plains. The Palomino is now the only “alternative” country space and…
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