INDIO, CA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — After a seeing record-breaking attendance for the year, Coachella producers Goldenvoice have signed a new lease for the festival's home turf at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio California.
The new lease secures the Polo Grounds for Coachella for the next decade and the property's owner, Alexander Haagen III has said that he intends to invest more than $1 million in upgrades at the facility, which is already considered by many to be one of the most generously appointed festival sites in the U.S. Among planned upgrades are a revamp of the site's electrical system and upgrades to help ameliorate the traffic problems that overwhelm the small town's infrastructure during the festival.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Festival site saw a number of improvements already this year, including 100 acres of additional parking, access to Rose Gardens, enhanced camping facilities and expanded festival hours.
"Now, for the first time, we can take steps to make long-term improvements," Goldenvoice's Paul Tollett told the L.A. Times. "Every year, on Sunday night I walk out and I think, ‘Well, next year is the last one.' We've never had a deal that went more than a couple of years. We've always been on eggshells."
Goldenvoice's hold on the festival site has long been a tenuous one and during the height of the real estate boom, Haagan was considering dividing the Polo Grounds up for residential developments.
"We would have been crushed, it would have been the end," Tollett added.
