Coachella returned in all of its glory this past weekend but it didn’t go down without a few hiccups. Fans flocked to Indio, CA for one of the world’s biggest festivals as some of the most exciting artists took the stage. Unfortunately, it seems like a few logistic issues led to some hefty fines for the festival. According to Pitchfork, the city of Indio, CA fined Coachella and its organizers over $100,000 after they violated the city’s curfew on all three nights.
Representatives of Indio confirmed that they issued a $117,000 fine to the festival organizers. In accordance with local law, Coachella was supposed to have their festival wrapped up by 1 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday and midnight PST on Sunday. However, as previously reported, Frank Ocean was late by nearly an hour to his own performance. While already a short set, he already went 25 minutes over his set. On Friday, the festival breached the 1 a.m. curfew by 25 minutes while Saturday went 22 minutes past the time limit.
Coachella Breaches Curfew
Indio and Goldenvoice, the promoters behind Coachella, struck an agreement in 2013 surrounding festival regulations. The money collected from fines would ultimately go toward Indio’s General Fund for operating costs, police, fire departments, and public works. As part of the agreement, Indio fined Coachella $20,000 for going five minutes past curfew. Each minute afterward would amount to an additional $1,000. With weekend two around the corner, hopefully, they manage to avoid facing further fines.
The case surrounding Frank Ocean caused an uproar among festivalgoers and fans at home. For starters, he decided to cut the live stream for his highly-anticipated return to the stage. Then, he appeared nearly an hour late before abruptly informing the crowd that the show was over. Shortly after, reports emerged claiming that Ocean threatened to nix his set altogether Coachella failed to honor his last-minute stage design changes. Some fans were upset but it turned out that Frank Ocean suffered an ankle injury prior to Coachella. His doctors told him that he needed to change his stage design, which reportedly included an ice rink and hockey players. We’ll keep you posted on any more updates surrounding Coachella’s fines.