Coachella's famed Sahara Tent to offer more shade from blistering desert sun, heat
Hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers will flock to the Southern California desert for the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this weekend.
Among the performers this year are headlining acts such as Beyonce, Eminem and The Weeknd.
This year’s festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, will feature an expended Sahara Tent, the popular site where electronic dance music is played.
A primary concern in past years has been that the tent, and the festival overall can become too crowded. In years past, crowds of more than 10,000 have extended outside of the tent.
Festival goers dance in the Sahara Tent during the 2015 Coachella Music and Arts Festival on Sunday, April 12, 2015, in Indio, Calif. (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP
Coachella founder Paul Tollett told the Desert Sun that the tent was being moved to a different part of the polo club and it will be 25 percent larger.
In addition to allowing more space for attendees hoping to get into the tent, the tent will be shaded all afternoon, which will keep it cooler, Tollett told the Sun.
“It’s going to revolutionize the show,” Tollett said.
Adding more shade for spectators during the day is vital, especially with abundant sunshine and temperatures expected to soar into the 90s during the first weekend of the festival.
Last year's festival saw temperatures surge into the triple digits during the second weekend, which led to reports of several attendees being treated for heat exhaustion at the festival's medical tents.
Courtesy of Coachella
While Coachella has water refill stations and some tents are air conditioned, spectators will inevitably spend long periods out in the desert sun as they stroll to various performance stages.
There are several ways to identify heat illness and whether or not someone is succumbing to symptoms, according to medical professionals with the Mayo Clinic.
"Heat illness can take multiple forms — each ranging in severity. The different types of heat illness, from mildest to most dangerous, include heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke," said Dr. Ruth Bolton, regional director of Mayo Clinic Health System Urgent Care. "If you’re concerned you or someone else may be experiencing heatstroke, seek medical assistance immediately. Heatstroke is a medical emergency."
