High winds force brief evacuation at Stagecoach festival in California

High winds forced Stagecoach into an emergency evacuation Saturday night, pushing roughly 75,000 to 80,000 fans out of the Empire Polo Club in Indio before the country festival reopened later that evening.

Screens across the site flashed “EMERGENCY EVACUATION,” and the festival’s app told attendees to leave the grounds and move to vehicles or protected areas outside the venue. The message on stage screens told people the festival had been postponed until further notice and to move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit. At the time, Marshmello was in the middle of a DJ set at the Honkeytonk tent, while crowds near the Mane Stage were waiting for Journey.

The interruption came on Day 2 of the three-day event, which ran April 24 through April 26 at the Coachella Valley venue and featured headliners Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson and Post Malone. After the evacuation, organizers said the show would resume momentarily. By about 9:37 p.m., Stagecoach posted that it was “back in the saddle” and working to reopen doors and prepare the site for fans’ return. Reporting indicated the evacuation lasted less than two hours.

The weather disruption also forced a reshuffling of the Saturday night bill. Lainey Wilson’s headlining set was pushed back to 10:30 p.m., Pitbull’s late-night performance was extended to run until 1 a.m., and Journey and Riley Green were removed from the evening lineup.

The National Weather Service had warned earlier in the week that Southern California desert regions could face elevated to strong westerly winds Saturday night into early Sunday morning, with gusts up to 50 mph and isolated gusts to 60 mph through mountain passes. Earlier forecasts put the strongest winds as high as 55 mph, with 65 mph possible through the passes. The warnings matched the kind of conditions that can turn a packed desert festival into a crowd-safety problem within minutes.

Stagecoach has already been tested by the same threat. The 2025 festival also saw high winds and dust storms, underscoring how extreme weather is becoming a recurring operational risk at the Indio venue. For major festivals built around open-air stages, temporary structures and massive crowds, the question is no longer whether wind and heat will interrupt the schedule, but whether safety plans, communications and evacuation procedures are evolving quickly enough to keep pace with the desert climate now shaping the event itself.