So, How Was It?

[york707]

I want to read some reviews, thoughts, opinions, pictures, etc...

[timebomb]

I only went on Saturday, as I had a commitment on Sunday. It was absolutely awesome!!!! We pretty much stuck to the Palomino Stage (aka Alt. Stage) Talk about up close and personal! We were there early enough to get great seats 20 feet away from the stage. I came primarily to see Old 97's and Willie Nelson. Got to see Lucinda William, Nickle Creek, and most of the acts at the Palomino stage. You can have the gazillion people at the Mane stage but for anywone wanting to actually SEE the musicians, the other stages rocked!!!! Thank you Tollet for sticking to your gut instinct. Those other acts are the ones to be seen....

[york707]

Thanks Timebomb... Old 97s, DBT, Willie, Lucinda, Neko... I would have camaped out at Palomino, as well.

For those of you that went, what are your thoughts on this review?

[Cooter]

it was amazing! so different than coachella and in a lot of ways, better. the best was the mid 80's temps on saturday, tons of clouds in the sky keeping us cool. sunday was clear skies and a lot hotter. the crowd was soooo laid back. everyone was sitting in their chairs and on their blankets just rocking out. i would choose a stagecoach crowd over a coachella crowd, at least for this year...rednecks > frat boys. you could leave the beer gardens with up to 2 beers. way more family oriented. i am guessing there were close to 35,000 a day, maybe even 40,000...to look out at the crowd while george strait was playing, i was more than impressed in the turn out for a first year festival. you could see heads packed in almost all the way back to the merch tent. spent most of my time at the palomino stage and the apaloosa tent and it was a great time. i am a coachella vet and will be a stagecoach vet in the near future if they go ahead with it next year...and i am not even a fan of country, just into events in themselves(the backstage access i receive makes it a lot more enjoyable for me for both events, as well).

as for that review in the oc register...i hate "critics", they're name says it all-they are there to criticize and it sucks that they can't just go as fans and enjoy themselves.

[Cooter]

this l.a. times review is much more on point in my opinion...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...ella-center-st

[Glockgirl]

I have nothing but the best to say about the entire weekend, the Indio police department, the Acts and the entire Stagecoach staff. We camped and had the BEST time! The restrooms were clean, there was never a wait. The showers were warm, good pressure and there were plenty so the wait was less than 10minutes.

We spent Friday night at the Clubhouse and had a great time meeting new people and visiting with old friends!!! The clubhouse wasn't open after the concerts Sat & Sun so the RVs in the main row turned up the tunes and allowed the campers to have a great time>

We were thanked a few times for being the country fans and not coachella fans by both the staff & the Indio P.D.

Inside, the Saturday was great. I have NO idea what the crowd level was but Sunday doubled Saturday yet, the lines moved fast and the staff stayed friendly.

I felt sorry for those who stayed in hotels. ALOT of the experience fun was on the camp grounds and they had to both STAY in all day AND walk forever from the parking lot.

The money was worth it and I'm up for Stagecoach 2008

[ajlover]

I think this was an AWESOME weekend. They did a very good job for the first festival. Very few things that I would change.

[BlkTib]

My wife and I had a fabulous time. What fun. Nice people. Courteous staff. More fun stuff to see and do than we could in 2 days. The music was great and the Polo Gounds were very nice. Variety of food was good. Access to toilets was good. We got there Friday morning and left Monday morning. We will definitley be back.

I took lots of pictures. Can we post them somewhere?

[york707]

My wife and I had a fabulous time. What fun. Nice people. Courteous staff. More fun stuff to see and do than we could in 2 days. The music was great and the Polo Gounds were very nice. Variety of food was good. Access to toilets was good. We got there Friday morning and left Monday morning. We will definitley be back.

I took lots of pictures. Can we post them somewhere?

Yes! Please do. When you post a message, there is a button that looks like mountains. Click on that. A window will pop up -- put the address of your picture in it (from flickr, photobucket,etc). It's easist to do it that way. It's tougher to post stuff as attachments as separate files.

[Barb]

Thank You for asking for an opinion. The festival was amazing. Camping was extremely accomidating, and special thanks to Kevin and Santa. I guess if you want true honesty, a couple of things might improve things for next year. Consider a beverage stand in the VIP area, even non alcoholic. Also, upon entering and exiting the stage area/VIP zone, there were no designated paths to get back to the vendors area. Sure hope there was no medical emergency that required quick stage area access. THANKS AGAIN, all of the stages, and security were great.

[Glockgirl]

Barb, you are right security was great! I wanted to give a shout out where it is due. The security guys in the BLUE shirts were VOLUNTEER marines from 29 Palms & Penalton. We saw them break up a few fights between drunk men. They jumped in took care of business and swept the offenders off the grounds. I saw one security guard help find 3 kids to their missing parents. (kids were older not young ones, it was just THAT crowded).

And BTW... I was also happy to see they had a lady signing UP on the stage!

[ladygrip]

FESTIVAL WAS AWESOME, HAD A BLAST. I ENDED UP GOING BY MYSELF BUT I MET ALOT OF PEOPLE AND MADE SOME NEW FRIENDS. GREAT SHOW, GREAT FOOD. I LOVED THE PEDDLE MECHANICLE RIDES, WHAT A GREAT IDEA. CANNOT WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!!!! I AM GOING TO CAMP NEXT YEAR, SEEMED LIKE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME IN THE CAMPGROUND, THANKS TO THE STAFF AND THE LOCAL PD.

[york707]

[formervalleyresident]

The mane stage performers were awesome. Especially George Strait (as usual). What totally sucked beyond belief was the parking situation. With an event as huge as this was there should have been shuttle service to and from the parking areas (like Disney Land has or any of the casinos have). There are people out there that (especially the older folks) have various health problems and shouldn't have to walk such a long distance, especially in the heat. Not all health problems warrant a state handicap placard but it doesn't make it any less difficult for some people to walk the distance from the parking lot to the entrance and then points in between. In other words, I think a lot more should have been done as far as providing more than bicycle riders with 2 seater carts to get the "lucky" few to and/or from the main entrance. The restrooms (out houses) were disgusting for the most part from all accounts that I was hearing (thank God I can hold it for a very long time). I found that the people hired to make things easier for attendee's were clueless for the most part but very friendly so that made up for the lack of knowledge. Questions I had asked were very basic such as where to get a program (which were supposed to be handed out upon entry but weren't) which I located on my own and then hunted down the people who should have known and didn't and told them were things were. Had 2 tickets for Sunday but didn't go because the person I was with wasn't in the best of health for the parking/walk situation so there was $160.00 plus down the drain. Would I go next year in my good health? No way!

[BlkTib]

[BlkTib]

[BlkTib]

[BlkTib]

[BlkTib]

[BlkTib]