From midmorning on, there has been a steady stream of cars turning into the Empire Polo Club for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. They’re parking on a grassy field. Many are hanging out there, setting up barbecues, before they make the half-mile trudge to the entrance.
Scalpers are wandering around, trying to buy and sell tickets. Panhandlers are offering meditation books to arrivals in return for donations.
A few Paul McCartney fans look as if they were around for the first summer of love. Some twenty-somethings have painted their bodies as if they were. Some people painted their cars, too. There’s a black Toyota Prius with windows covered with messages such as “CARPOOLCHELLA.” It has an arts-and-crafts cone decorated like a palm tree sitting on top.
—Fielding Buck
fbuck@PE.com