INDIO, United States — “We’ve waited years
for this!” exclaims Jesus Medina as he dishes out burritos to the hungry masses
at
Coachella, the music festival that’s back on in the California desert after
three years.
اضافة اعلان
After a
COVID-induced hiatus, Coachella Valley
businesses are flourishing with the return of one of music’s most-touted
events, a boon for the region that counts festivals as key to its economic
engine.
With just a little over 90,000 residents, Indio’s
motto is “The City of Festivals,” events that make it at least $3 million in
direct revenue alone, according to municipal figures, which includes
ticket-sharing dollars and transient occupancy taxes from campers.
The benefit to businesses from liquor stores to
hotels to gas stations took that figure soaring even higher — until the pandemic
stymied live performance and put Coachella on indefinite hiatus.
“We had everything ready in 2020, but the pandemic
canceled everything,” Medina told AFP in Spanish. His business “Cena Vegana”
sold more than a thousand burritos on Friday, during Coachella’s opening day.
“It doesn’t stop, the lines are endless — this is a
great opportunity for us.”
Coachella draws in more than 125,000 people daily
over the course of two three-day weekends.
Thousands of people occupy hotels in neighboring
areas including Palm Springs, the resort area bordered by the San Jacinto
mountains and known for its palm trees, golf courses and spas.
Business has been “quiet for years, a couple years,
but we’re full and it’s busy,” said Char Pershind, manager of the Zoso Hotel.
Nearly all of the 162 rooms at Zoso are booked by
people attending and working at the festival, and virtually everything is sold
out for the event’s second weekend.
In 2019, the last time Coachella attendees descended
on the valley, Pershind worked at a different hotel, and says this year many
more people are in town for the shows.
“People have been cooped up for so long... they want
to get out and enjoy the air,” she said.
“I know they come for the music — but they come for
a lot more.”
‘Reminder I was here’
For Mitchell Car, who works
at a bustling vintage clothing and accessories shop, Coachella is a golden
opportunity to expand sales.
“Lots of times people come and they don’t have their
outfits,” Car told AFP.
This year, the
festival’s giving 1970s vibes with bell-bottom silhouettes of yore, along with
bursts of neon and glitter adding sheen to the Empire Polo Club grounds where
the stages spring up each year.
“They’re always searching: what’s hip? What’s
unique?” said Car, whose primary clientele come from New York, San Francisco
and Los Angeles. “I had the photographer for Harry Styles in the store the
other day.”
Food choices abound on the festival grounds, where
Santiago Restrepo is dishing up traditional
Venezuelan arepas to hungry
concert-goers.
“At first it was a bit difficult for us, because
it’s the first time we’ve used this sales model,” he told AFP. “But when people
started arriving in the middle of the afternoon we were ready.”
“After 4pm, we didn’t stop for a second until 1am.”
A few feet away, Coachella partiers are lined up to
snag souvenirs celebrating the festival’s return.
In the official store, it took people an
hour-and-a-half to reach the front of the line where some 20 people doled out
merch, the most expensive item ringing up at $150 for a 2022 sweatshirt.
“Some people spent thousands of dollars,” said one
vendor who wished to remain anonymous.
Charlie Dawson, who flew in from New York, told AFP
he just wants “something, whatever — a reminder I was here.”
It’s his seventh Coachella: “I was looking forward to coming
back.”
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