Goldenvoice calls off new parking policy for Coachella festival, still encourages carpools

Good news for passholders to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. A new parking policy requiring vehicles of four or more passengers to enter the day parking lots is no more.

In a Wednesday email sent to passholders, Los Angeles promoter Goldenvoice said "Come as you are and bring a friend along for the road trip if you've still got the space" and to decorate their vehicles with the tag "Carpoolchella" for a chance to win lifetime VIP passes.

Historically, day parking has always been first-come, first-served, and anyone with a festival wristband could hop in your car.

The new parking policy would have admitted vehicles with four or more passengers into day parking lots — with no exceptions. Everyone in the vehicle would be required to show a valid wristband and have a corresponding decal (which would be given to pass holders when they obtain their wristband) on the windshield. Cars with fewer than four decals would be directed to park at a nearby off-site location.

As criticism from festivalgoers continued over the new policy, the city of Indio told The Desert Sun in February it had no role in creating the rule of vehicles requiring four or more passengers to enter the day parking lots.

Indio Police spokesperson Ben Guitron said the city was only made aware of Goldenvoice’s intent, the policy was still a work in progress and nothing was put in front of the department during the usual preliminary planning ahead of the April festival.

“Anything Goldenvoice does, we’re in a partnership and want to know if there’s a significant impact ... and make sure there are no traffic delays unless there are unforeseen things that sometimes happen,” Guitron said.

When asked about traffic conditions during festivals in recent years, Guitron said some issues often arise during the first day of the three festival weekends, but are always resolved.

But festivalgoers have long endured parking and traffic issues before, during and after Coachella and the Stagecoach country music festivals. It can take an hour or more to exit the lot off Monroe Street and Avenue 49 (yellow lot).

With some 100,000 in attendance at the music festival during both weekends, the east valley roads and Interstate 10 are choked with vehicles starting trips back west the following Monday morning.

Desert Sun reporter 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: Goldenvoice scraps new carpool parking policy for Coachella festival