5 improvements we'd like to see at Stagecoach, California's country music festival

The 2024 Stagecoach country music festival has come to a close, and there were many memorable moments from this year's festival. From Jelly Roll's guest-filled debut performance to Miranda Lambert bringing the hits to Morgan Wallen's magnificent headlining set, it all speaks to what makes Stagecoach a prominent country festival.

What sets Stagecoach apart from other festivals within the genre is not only its location in the Southern California desert, but its atmosphere, which is a celebration of Americana fused with a family-reunion-at-a-honky-tonk vibe. But there's room for Los Angeles promoter Goldenvoice to make some necessary changes to California's country festival on many levels, because aspects of the festival look and feel the same each year.

Here are five improvements we'd like to see at Stagecoach.

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Please, no more changes to the Stagecoach festival layout

In the past, the Stagecoach festival had a consistent layout with the Mane Stage located on the east side of the Empire Polo Club. In 2023, the organizers decided to adopt the Coachella layout, which placed the Mane Stage on the north end of the property. This year, the festival returned to the old layout, but with some changes.

The standing GA area was expanded, and the areas for people with blankets and chairs were moved further back toward the courtyard. Navigating through the crowd from the Mane Stage to the Palomino tent was more challenging than in previous years, given the larger standing GA area and the paths designated for walking through it. Festivalgoers walking between the Mane Stage and the Palomino tent had to navigate through a large crowd going up and down from the main entrance and Terrace area — unless they spotted the easy-to-miss express walkway behind one of the screens.

Organizing different areas for premium passholders, general admission, and people who bring blankets and chairs is commendable, but it would be ideal for organizers to create a permanent map based on what worked in the past — with some minor adjustments — and stop changing it each year.

Use the Outdoor Theatre from Coachella as the Palomino

One of my biggest complaints about Stagecoach is that the Palomino tent stage is not being utilized correctly. In the past, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Willie Nelson, ZZ Top, and other artists have drawn huge crowds to this stage, which is the Mojave tent during Coachella, and it's often filled beyond its maximum capacity. For instance, on Friday night, an estimated 20,000-some people were waiting to see Nickelback perform in the Palomino. Even other performances such as The Beach Boys, Leon Bridges, and Clint Black saw crowds that exceeded the tent's capacity.

Simply putting a monitor on the lawn to the side of the stage is not enough, the Palomino tent and the areas surrounding it still have capacity issues. It's unclear why the organizers have not expanded the stage or utilized the Outdoor Theatre stage from Coachella, knowing that thousands of people will pack into the tent to see the classic rock or older country bands. It would be a welcome addition to the festival.

Bring the Mustang tent back to Stagecoach and add more music

There used to be more music at Stagecoach and another stage for indie, alternative and classic country acts. The Gobi and Sahara tents at Coachella remained where they were and were renamed the Mustang and Palomino for the country festival. In 2018 and 2019, the much smaller Gobi tent became the Palomino, which was an obvious mistake and caused its own capacity issues.

In 2022, the larger Palomino tent returned, and what was the Mustang has been used as the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, a brand tie-in for the western TV show "Yellowstone," which features food vendors, merchandise and more.

With "Yellowstone" set to release its fifth and final season soon, it would be great to see more music back at Stagecoach with the return of the Mustang tent featuring more country artists on the rise, alternative and indie country and more.

Can we get some new art installations?

Some might say Stagecoach festivalgoers don't seem to appreciate art installations like the Coachella crowd does, but that seems to be a misconception. Thousands of festivalgoers pose for group photos and selfies in front of the "Mustang" sculpture and local artist Sofia Enriquez' “MISMO” paisleys, but these have been featured at the festival for the past few years now.

During Coachella, the art installations add to the overall aesthetic of the event and also provide more much-needed shade and resting areas — all while balancing all the corporate branding placed throughout the festival. Organizers should consider featuring some of the Coachella art or creating art exclusively for Stagecoach to give the grounds a more visually appealing — and more practical — feel.

Better production is needed for Stagecoach's Mane Stage acts

This is probably more on the artists and speaks to the genre of country music itself, but the production for some who perform on the Mane Stage is colorless. If these people are big names, regardless of what time each is performing, there should be something other than a background with just their names on the screen.

Some arguments from the audience's perspective are probably "it's more about the music" or "they don't need pyro for every song."

Fair point, but Elle King, Jelly Roll, Hardy and Morgan Wallen put on memorable shows over the weekend because of their visual production. Even Eric Church's red stained glass windows on the production screen were pleasing. Jelly Roll's visuals and use of pyro accentuated his set. Both Hardy and Wallen made full use of the Mane Stage's production capabilities to enhance the music.

Even The Beach Boys' performance in the Palomino stage had fun visuals, historic footage of the band members while revealing lyrics of the songs inviting the audience to sing along.

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Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 5 improvements we'd like to see at Stagecoach country music festival