High Winds Wreak Havoc at Stagecoach As Sets Cancelled

Photo Credit: Colton Jones

Severe weather plagues Stagecoach over the weekend, leading to cancelled and delayed shows and upset attendees who were given the runaround.

High winds in Southern California led to an emergency evacuation at the Stagecoach country music festival, hosted at the same site that Coachella used the past two weekends. Headlined by Cody Johnson, Lainey Wilson, and Post Malone, the festival saw approximately 75,000 to 80,000 attendees evacuated due to severe weather on Saturday night.

“Due to severe weather, please exit the event site and move to your vehicles or protected areas outside of the event site for safety,” read an announcement from the Stagecoach app and displayed on screens around the festival grounds at around 7:46 PM on Saturday. “Stay tuned for updates.”

However, about an hour later, the festival’s social media accounts posted a new message letting attendees know that the show would resume. “We are working to open doors and prep the site for your safety,” they wrote.

But by then, thousands of fans had already left the site and could not return.

“You can’t ask 85k people to evacuate and then go ‘Oops! UNO reverse, come back,’” wrote one disgruntled user on the former Twitter. “But I evacuated… like you told me,” wrote another.

“Staff were telling people the show was done for the night and cancelled,” wrote a third. “Not just ‘postponed.’ I expect a lot of people will be asking for refunds.”

“Stagecoach knew high winds were expected, let people in after a casual noon warning, gave no escalating contingency/re-entry instructions, then issued a full emergency evacuation saying the festival was ‘postponed,’” another argued.

“For shuttle/rideshare attendees, complying meant entering a one-way exit system. By the time they reopened, return wasn’t just inconvenient—it was functionally impossible. Reopening doesn’t cure that. Stagecoach’s own communications and logistics denied access to the resumed show for a large class of people who followed official safety instructions.”

When the show resumed that night, things were already delayed considerably. Both country singer Riley Green and classic rock band Journey ended up cancelling altogether, but headliner Lainey Wilson’s set still went ahead as planned.

Strong winds were expected to continue throughout the weekend, with Post Malone headlining Sunday night’s lineup.