The first of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival’s two weekends ended early Monday and thousands of attendees began the trek home.
About 30,000 campers remained in lots early Monday morning, said Indio police Sgt. Dan Marshall, but had to leave by 10 a.m. Traffic was heavy through the afternoon on freeways heading west out of the Coachella Valley, particularly Interstate 10 and the 60 Freeway.
The California Highway Patrol issued a traffic advisory just after 9:30 a.m. for westbound Interstate 10 near the San Bernardino County line in Calimesa. Traffic congestion began building there, as well as Interstate 10 just west of Indio until about the state Route 62 interchange near Desert Hot Springs.
By evening, westbound traffic remained bumper-to-bumper starting from Palm Springs and through the San Gorgonio Pass to Beaumont.
Rapper and Compton native Kendrick Lamar was the final act of the weekend to take the main stage. It was his second Coachella appearance after performing on the 2012 main stage both as a solo act and as a guest for headliners Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.
Other notable Sunday performances included pop star Lorde, whose Coachella performance marked her return following a nearly three-year hiatus from performing and recording, and movie composer Hans Zimmer, who led more than 70 musicians through some of his most well-known compositions.
French rap duo PNL were dropped from Sunday’s lineup because one member, Tarik Andrieu, was not able to get a visa in time to make the performance, according to media reports.
“After several months of administrative steps, one of the two of us still hasn’t been allowed to return to the United States for reasons that you can imagine,” a message on the group’s Facebook page said. “Hoping to have some good news from here the next weekend.”
On Saturday, six-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga performed as a replacement for Beyonce, who is pregnant with twins and gave up her headlining spot on doctor’s orders, with promises to appear next year.
Gaga introduced a new song, “The Cure,” about halfway through her hour- and-a-half set. The song is already No. 1 on streaming services in England.
Audiences were also treated to an unofficial performance from Drake during Atlanta rapper Future’s set. The duo’s performance included “Jumpman,” one of their many collaborations.
One person was arrested Friday at the festival grounds for allegedly stealing over 100 phones from attendees. All the phones were either returned to their rightful owners or turned over to the lost and found area at the concert site, police said.
No other major arrests or disturbances were reported as of early Sunday evening. Police planned to release the number and nature of weekend arrests and citations Tuesday, Marshall said.
The crowds return to the Polo Grounds starting Thursday for the second weekend featuring the same artists. Campers can begin arriving at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to the festival website.
An estimated 125,000 people are expected at the festival each day, which would make this year’s event the best-attended Coachella festival in history, thanks to the Indio City Council’s unanimous decision to expand the festival’s attendance cap from 99,000 to 125,000.
–City News Service