Props to you, Indio. The camping situation at Coachella would have broken many cities, but you have kept your cool and basically embraced the weirdness that is thousands of campers with nowhere to go until 3 am.
If you haven’t been following, Goldenvoice delayed the check-in time for campers at the music festival, which normally begins on Thursday morning, until Friday at 3 am, due to high wind warnings. This presented a problem as many music fans had already made plans to be in the desert whether by car, plane, hitchhiking, or whatever it Coachella fans do these days.
Festival goers have been flooding into parking lots all over Indio to hang out and wait until they can check in. A tipster sent in this photo they said was being handed out by Indio Police with suggested areas to park and hang, with a few rules:
Yup, hello #Walmartchella.
But you know, what? It seems to be working, at least so far. And props to the city, its businesses, and its residents for all being cool about it and turning lemons into lemonade (which is perfect because, you know, Beyonce).
Thousands of people loitering around in parking lots would have basically broken any other city in the Coachella Valley – I mean, can you imagine how incensed the residents of Rancho Mirage would have been if they saw their parking spots at the River taken up? But not Indio. Indio just gets it.
Glad at least one of our cities does.