Goldenvoice must be really under pressure right now. The City Councils of La Quinta, a city in the Coachella Valley, and Indio have voted for the postponement of the approval of the contract with the Coachella festival promoter and organizer! According to various publications (LAWeekly, the Desert Sun) the festival is now seeing the possibility of delay from its April dates.
La Quinta is asking for an assessment ‘under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to evaluate the environmental impact of traffic, noise and pollution generated by the festival’.
It is true that the festival has grown to monster proportions, and it’s about 60,000 to 75,000 people daily, and needless to say that the small cities were not happy to learn that the festival had extended to 2 weekends this year.
Coachella goers are seen by some locals as ‘the people who destroy our environment’, and 80 percent of the community's security incidents do occur during Coachella and the other Stagecoach Festival, held the next weekend.
The website KCET.org even reports funny complaints from residents over the years include allegations of festival goers ‘trespassing, riding horses without permission, and using neighbors' property as open-air toilets, in addition to the expected problems with noise and traffic’.
The approval of the contract has been postponed for 30 days ‘to address the concerns of residents and the need for an Environmental Impact Review.’
And the process would probably extend beyond Coachella's opening date on April 13-15!
But I guess a compromise will probably be found,… since when environmental reasons have stopped people to make money? And since the new contract would give Indio a portion of ticket sales earnings from both festivals….