strong wind

[Update: At of 8:42 p.m., the festival advised via its mobile app that Stagecoach will resume momentarily. “We are working to open doors and prep the site for your safety,” the alert said. Just before 9p.m. the gates were reopened.

Stagecoach updated its schedule for Saturday night after a temporary evacuation due to high winds. Journey, which had been scheduled to play the Mustang Stage, will no longer perform; Riley Green, set to play the Mane Stage will also not perform. Lainey Wilson, who was set to headline the Mane stage, will play an hour later than originally scheduled at 10:30 p.m.]

Due to high winds at Stagecoach, the festival promoter Goldenvoice postponed the festival Saturday night until further notice and crowds are currently being evacuated.

An “Emergency Evacuation” message showed up on screens on the festival’s Mane Stage saying “the festival is been postponed until further notice. Please move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit.”

The city of Indio where the fest is located is under a strong wind advisory until 11 a.m. Sunday morning. The advisory issued by the National Weather Service was in effect at 2 p.m. but the gusts didn’t pick up until Teddy swims’ Mane Stage set just after 5 p.m.

Thousands of people poured out of the festival. Despite there being messaging on the screen to evacuate, some emergency exits were still closed by security staff between the main stage and the main entrance. In addition to messaging on screens, the Stagecoach app sent an alert for people to evacuate.

Fans at the festival reported that the winds earlier were much stronger than the evening gusts that resulted in the spontaneous postponement.

“The show was pretty windy when we got there but we went into a saloon to see one of our friends do karaoke,” said Krystine Malins, 58. “When we came out palm trees were like bending in half.”

Malins, who has attended the festival since the first installment in 2007, said an evacuation was “the best call.”

“I just feel bad for these girls walking around half-naked in this wind,” she said.

Two Stagecoach festival attendees, Ellie, 27, and Angelique, 22, sat at tables farther back from the stage watching people filing out of the festival.

“We were trying to see Pitbull at the end of the night, so that’s kind of like our whole night, I don’t know, ruined I guess,” Angelique said. “We were kind of hoping for a refund.” Asked about whether the wind felt seriousness enough to stop the show, the pair were cautiously optimistic. “Honestly I would say yeah [it’s bad], but I feel like there could still be potential for it to go down, but it felt worse earlier,” Angelique said.

Despite the evacuation, the general atmosphere among many festival goers was calm as crowds were walking back to their cars.

“I didn’t even know what was going on until I saw the screen [at the Mane Stage] and then I started hearing “Hey they’re evacuating, get out,” one festival goer told the Times. “But then we had to sit it out because there was a clog at the exit. It’s not that bad.”

Strong winds disrupted the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday night and the forecast calls for more gusts throughout the weekend.

Windy conditions are not unusual to the festival, which attracts roughly 125,000 attendees to the Empire Polo Club each of its weekends, but it’s rare to see the weather cause performances to be canceled.

On Friday night, EDM artist Anyma canceled his much-anticipated performance set for just before midnight on the festival’s biggest stage due to the weather.

“Due to strong wind conditions affecting Anyma’s stage build, he is unable to perform. Coachella & Anyma have made this decision together with your safety as the priority,” the fest wrote in a message on its app just after midnight on Saturday morning.

On Friday night, there were social media reports that showed that the Do Lab — a stage on the southern side of the festival grounds, which includes shade structures with colorful bolts of fabric — was closed for the night with yellow caution tape around the area and that a speaker may have fallen to the ground.

Festival promoter Goldenvoice and the organizers of the Do Lab stage did not provide comment at the time of publication.

The wind wreaked havoc in the campsite as well, blowing tents and canopies over.

“It was definitely pretty impactful last night. The wind reports in the area saw gusts up to 35 to 40 mph yesterday during late afternoon,” said Isaac Longley, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. “Unfortunately, that was when there were a lot of performers on the main stages, and a pretty impactful situation with the tents at Coachella.”

According to the online forecast for the weekend from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, temperatures in Indio were expected to reach 86 degrees on Saturday with 5- to 10-mph winds in the afternoon and a low of 56 degrees with the winds increasing to 15 to 20 mph and changing direction after midnight. Gusts were expected to be up to 30 mph later into the evening.

“As we head into Saturday afternoon and evening, we expect pretty similar conditions to [Friday] and for winds to pick up,” Longley said. “I would definitely consider staking my tent down.”

Sunday’s forecast was cooler, with a high of 79 and winds of 10 to 20 mph in the day. The expected low is 53 with winds expected at 15 mph with gusts of up to 30 mph.

There’s also an air quality alert for the windblown dust through 5 a.m. Sunday.