Coachella Music Festival Wraps 2nd Weekend With Few Arrests

The event drew some 160,000 people to the desert city of Indio

The second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival appeared to have gone off as smoothly a day after the massive event in Indio finished up its 2013 run.

As of late Sunday night, 73 people had been arrested over the weekend, including 19 on Sunday, primarily for alcohol violations, said Indio Police Department spokesman Ben Guitron. There were 91 arrests the previous weekend, also primarily due to alcohol violations.\

The number of arrests is relatively low, considering that each weekend of the festival attracted around 160,000 people, police said.

Police plan to release an updated number of weekend arrests later today, said Guitron, who reported that festival security this weekend went smoothly.

The sold-out two-weekend festival, which is staged yearly at Indio's 78- acre Empire Polo Club, ended Sunday night as it had the previous week -- with the famed Los Angeles-based Red Hot Chili Peppers as the closing act.

On Friday, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blur and the Stone Roses were the featured performers, with Phoenix and the Postal Service topping the bill on Saturday.

Sunday's shows were held amid sunny conditions with light winds and highs reaching in the mid-90s. Similar conditions, though with slightly lower temperatures, are expected for the three-day annual Stagecoach Festival starting Friday.

According to a 2012 analysis by Palm Desert's Development Management Group, the economic impact in the Coachella Valley last year from both Coachella and the Stagecoach country music festival was $254.4 million -- $89.21 million in Indio alone.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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