Things didn’t exactly go as planned during the second day of this year’s Stagecoach Festival. While country music lovers were enjoying the event, things were suddenly shut down and everyone was told to leave immediately as an emergency evacuation was issued.
The Stage Went Quiet and Attendees Were told to Leave
“The 2026 Stagecoach Festival was put on hold on Saturday night (April 25),” according to Just Jared. “On the second day of the annual music festival, attendees were issued to evacuate the grounds at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., due to high winds.”
Indeed, in one video shared on Instagram (see above), while attendees were enjoying the music, the sound from the stage was suddenly cut off and a large message popped up on the screen behind the band.
“Emergency Evacuation,” the screen read in white text on a bright red background. “The festival has been postponed until further notice. Please move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit.”
Variety explained that “approximately 75,000-80,000 guests were forced to evacuate.”
At 7:46 p.m., an update appeared on the Stagecoach app, per Variety, telling festival-goers, “Due to severe weather, please exit the event site and move to your vehicles or protected areas outside of the event site for safety. Stay tuned for updates.”
Variety notes that “[a]bout 30 minutes later, a new update was sent out: “Please continue to shelter in place. Stand by for the next update.”
“At 9:37 p.m., exactly one hour after the last update, Stagecoach revealed, ‘We’re back in the saddle,’ and posted updated times for Lainey Wilson and Pitbull; the festival changed pushed back sets for both, with the night now wrapping at 1 a.m. instead of the originally planned 11:55 p.m,” Variety mentioned.
See the Evacuation Happening Due to Palm Tree-Bending Wind
When it comes to those who were actually attending the second day of Stagecoach, one person told the Los Angeles Times, “The show was pretty windy when we got there but we went into a saloon to see one of our friends do karaoke. When we came out, palm trees were like bending in half.”
Someone else who had been at the event told The Times, “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. We were kind of hoping for a refund.”
When asked if she thought the evacuation was justified, she admitted, “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.”
The Times acknowledged the fact that “[d]espite the evacuation, the general atmosphere among many festivalgoers 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,'” another person told The Times. “But then we had to sit it out because there was a clog at the exit. It’s not that bad.”
