Coachella 2019: Sunshine, building heat in store for festival's opening weekend
Held in the Southern California desert, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival features some of the hottest names in music as well as sweltering temperatures.
Festivalgoers planning on spending a few days in the desert to experience the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, will be greeted with generally dry and sunny conditions.
The festival showcases the hottest names in music, as well as new and emerging artists, for two consecutive weekends each April and is held about 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino and Tame Impala will headline the event, which runs from April 12-14 and 19-21.
Coachella, along with other major music festivals across the nation, is actively working toward improving sustainability and providing a cleaner, greener festival experience for attendees, staff and performers.
A 2017 environmental report from Indio revealed that Coachella, Stagecoach and Desert Trip festival attendees generate 107 tons of waste daily, yet only 20 percent of that is properly recycled.
Groups like Clean Vibes, which handles on-site waste management of outdoor festivals and events, help festival organizers tackle the waste issue by educating attendees on best practices for dealing with and cleaning up garbage and recyclables both during and after events.
"Arguably, the most important item for those attending the festival is sunscreen," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike Doll.
Festivalgoers attend the Coachella Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Saturday, April 14, 2018, in Indio, California. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP Photo)
"With nearly full sunshine expected for the first weekend, skin can burn within 30 minutes without sunscreen," Doll warned.
Dry weather is expected for the entire first weekend of the festival.
As an area of high pressure builds into California over the weekend, the heat will crank up and make shaded hats, sunglasses and cool clothing a necessity.
Although average high temperatures during the middle of April in Indio are generally in the middle 80s F, high temperatures over the weekend will hover around the 90-degree mark.
The first performers of each day typically take the stage at noon. This means the first few shows will take place during the warmest part of each day.
"Everyone from the attendees to event staff and the performers need to drink plenty of water to keep properly hydrated," Doll added.
Anybody who does not stay hydrated could experience the adverse effects of heat-related illness such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Knowing the warning signs of each and how to react appropriately when they arise is essential to a person's speedy recovery.
For those waiting until the evening shows and events, temperatures will quickly fall into the 60s and 70s F in time for the headlining acts.
Overnight temperatures will bottom out around 60 F before dawn on all three nights of the festival's opening weekend, offering some relief from the afternoon heat and blazing sunshine.
It is possible that the weather for the second weekend of the festival is cooler, cloudier and rather damp with the potential for a slow-moving storm system to drop into the Southwest around that time.
Download the free AccuWeather app to stay up to date on the latest forecast as you plan your festival weekend.
