Lowbelly BBQ, from Palm Desert, was one of the more popular barbecue tents at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival. (Luke Ramseth/Staff)
A couple weeks ago I attended my first Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Indeed it was the first true music festival I’d ever been to, outside a couple small-time jazz fests with my family as a kid.
I spent three days poking around the food tents, gazing up at the soaring art pieces, choking on dust, trying not to get too overwhelmed by hordes of bodies moving from one end of the Empire Polo Club to the other and, of course, taking in a couple of my favorite bands and discovering a few fresh ones.
The Stagecoach Country Music Festival, I found out on Saturday, is an entirely different festival animal. Here are five takeaways from my first Stagecoach:
1. Lay of the land. Stagecoach has fewer stages than Coachella, and the art is gone. What was a largely green, grassy infield for Coachella weekend one had turned to brown or sand this weekend, two weekends later. Somewhere around 90,000 people tromping around for days on end will do that.
Also, it can be a little more tricky to walk around at Stagecoach when compared to Coachella. This is largely because folding chairs are allowed at Stagecoach. There are barriers and walkways set up to navigate through the masses parked in front of the Mane stage, which helps a little bit, but I still found myself accidentally stepping on a few people’s belongings as the crowds grew for Jason Aldean on Saturday night.
2. Demographics. This might come as no surprise, but the Stagecoach country crowd is an older, whiter, and slightly rowdier one than Coachella. Alcohol is limited to several beer gardens at Coachella, but it flows freely throughout the festival grounds at Stagecoach.
Perhaps also no surprise: some Stagecoach-goers are pretty darn patriotic. American flags were everywhere, and chants of “America! America!” or “USA! USA!” would randomly break out in between sets. Go figure.
3. BBQ is the best. My assignment Saturday was to write a story on a Texas style barbecue competition. This ended up as one of my highlights of either Coachella or Stagecoach.
I tracked down the Johnson family. They run Lowbelly BBQ in Palm Desert, and have entered their barbecue at Stagecoach since the festival’s first year, in 2007. Jan Johnson was kind enough to describe the process of producing their premium meats while her husband Gary and son Nic were busy putting the finishing touches on their final brisket contest entry of the day. I of course indulged in a taste test of both the ribs and brisket. Tasty.
4. It’s a mega rock concert. There are fewer bands, fewer stages, and I’ll admit — I’m not much of a country music fan to begin with. But, I never saw such a massive crowd at Coachella as the one I witnessed for Jason Aldean on Saturday night at Stagecoach. Video screens were mounted out into the crowd showing short, flashy clips of Aldean ripping on the guitar. Fans danced and leaned over the barriers, yelling along with each lyric. I didn’t know live country music could be quite like this.
5. Weather. While Stagecoach temperatures were nearly perfect — if anything, it was a little chilly Saturday night — the dust was back, just like Coachella weekend one. Whichever festival you attend next year, bring along a bandanna or one of those cheap white dust masks to cover your face. I’m still sneezing and blowing out dust today.