That’s a wrap on another fun-filled, sun soaked, boots-kicking-up-dust Stagecoach 2019 weekend. With around 80,000 attendees at this year’s festival, held at The Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, Stagecoach truly delivered an unforgettable weekend for country music and festival lovers alike.
Presented by Goldenvoice, Stagecoach’s 2019 stacked star-studded lineup included all of country’s most famous and rising stars, including notable headliners and fan favorites Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Cole Swindell, Kane Brown, Sam Hunt, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lauran Alaina, Old Dominion, and Jason Aldean. Diplo was there to close the festival out with a Sunday night dance party, bringing out special guests Lil Nas and Billy Ray Cyrus, who performed their hit song they collaborated on, “Old Town Road.”
Other exciting highlights of Stagecoach featured a special live BBQ demonstration from everyone’s favorite “Flavortown” chef, Guy Fieri. The famed inventive culinary artist brought back Guy’s Stagecoach Smokehouse to do live demonstrations and serve up the nation’s most mouthwatering and tender BBQ food for the pitmaster enthusiasts around.
Stagecoach started Day 1 with a bit of an Aloha twist. Festivalgoers were encouraged to bring out their inner island style to celebrate #AlohaFriday. While festivalgoers were adorning their finest island wear, they had the chance to interact with all the different brand sponsors of the event. Sponsors and vendors of the festival marketed their brands and products by providing a unique experience with interactive onsite activations for the festivalgoers. Sponsors of this event were well known and influential brands including American Express, Budweiser, Bai, Barefoot Wine, Bumble, Estée Lauder, Golden Road Brewing, Grand Ole Opry, Ironclad Performance Wear, Malibu, Maui Jim, Monster Energy, Pandora, Pantene, Power Crunch, State Farm, Toyota, and Uber that provided their own inimitable pop-ups and opportunities to get involved and promote the product.
Along with partnerships with generous sponsors, music festivals provide a special platform for small businesses, brands, and other companies to promote their products and services across various channels through the use of social media and interactive brand awareness. Stagecoach especially caters to businesses whose niche lies within country and western markets. Within the festival grounds was a local marketplace, as well as the much-awaited marketplace, Nikki Lane Marketplace, for specialty and western-themed business to sell and market their products to the festival demographic. The marketplace highlighted many specialist items and apparel shops, such as Bandit Brand, High Class Hillbilly, Lone Hawk Hats, Honeywood, Mean Jean Leather, Midnight Rider, and others that capitalized on the opportunity to cater their products to this country music appreciating clientele.
First of all, let’s highlight some of the events that took place during Stagecoach weekend.
NEON CARNIVAL
The highly anticipated and long wait was over for Stagecoach festival goes with the arrival of Neon Carnival, the deserts hottest and most exclusive invite-only after party. To celebrate Neon Carnivals 10-year anniversary, LA’s original nightlife innovator and mastermind behind this highly sought-after event, Brent Bolthouse, partnered with Boots on Stage to deliver an unforgettable unique experience for country music lovers and influential Stagecoach festivalgoers. The event spanning across 3 football fields, featured whimsical carnival games, thrilling amusement park rides, innovative brand sponsorships and partnerships with Warren Bros. Pictures & Legendary Pictures first ever live-action Pokémon movie, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, LG Mobile Experience, LEVI Brands, Golden Road Brewery, and non-stop beats from DJ Kaypar, DJ Ruckus, and a special guest performance by country music DJ Dee Jay Silver.
The first ever live action Pokémon movie, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, to be released May 10, certainly made quite an impression at the fairgrounds with an imaginative Pikachu themed ferris wheel and a desirable Instagrammable photo opportunity with the well-known Pokémon character. Carnivalgoers were gifted with custom Pikachu eared antennas to wear while taking a ride on the ferris wheel and while enjoying the other happenings throughout the carnival.
Another stimulating attraction that took place was the LG Mobile Experience, where the company showcased their new smartphones, the LG GB ThinQ and the LG V50 ThinQ. Carnival goers had the chance to utilize the exceptional features of these phones with a series of activations that included a custom ASMR simulation, a Penta Shot Platform, and a Dual Display Gaming Zone.
Los Angeles brewery and beer essential, Golden Road Brewery had a continuous flow of their most popular brews for festivalgoers to sip on. They orchestrated a unique bar activation by bringing in their customized freight container that served a wide variety of brews from fruity seltzers to lagers. Also to join the beverages was Penta Water, there to guarantee that everyone was hydrated with their ultra-pure and invigorating water.
BOOTS ON STAGE HOTEL PARTY
Acclaimed and notorious country music marketing team Boots on Stage kicked off day 2 with a special country and western themed day party at the Chateau at Lake La Quinta for a select group of individuals. The daytime event included brand sponsorships from Snap Kitchen, LEVI Wrangler, Michelob Ultra, Deep Eddy Vodka, and a poolside performance by Chase Bryant. Guests were encouraged to sip on ice cold Michelob Ultra and grapefruit flavored Deep Eddy vodka cocktails while enjoying an authentic BBQ meal – that included burgers with Boots on Stage branded hamburger buns and cornhole games while out enjoying the sunshine with fellow Stagecoach festivalgoers.
Snap Kitchen, the omni-channel retailer and on-demand delivery of healthy comfort cuisine meal kits and subscriptions provided cold-pressed juices and collagen with flavors like Calming Carrot and Early Bird, to keep the concert goers hydrated and energized throughout the daytime celebration. Giveaways included a custom wrangler denim shirts embossed with a Boots on Stage patch and a plastic drink cup that was in the shape of a cowboy bot. Special appearances by models, influencers, and the Bachelorette season 14 runner-up Blake Hortsmann were spotted sipping cocktails and enjoying the poolside performance by Chase Bryant.
Boots on Stage also hosted brunch at the Boots On Stage Hotel with performances by Rob Mayes and Spencer Crandall.
Now on to more festival highlights!
BUDWEISER COUNTRY CLUB
One of the top sponsors, Budweiser, truly surpassed themselves with the return of the highly awaited Budweiser Country Club. The venue offered two levels of original and state-of-the-art activations that encouraged participation whilst promoting brand awareness and loyalty through social media.
The Budweiser Country Club included special appearances by the well renewed Clydesdales, Mitchell Tenpenny, Scott McCreery, a demo by Food Network’s The Grill Dads, a custom leather Koozie station, backyard games, and a never-ending flow of ice cold Budweisers, as well as the brand-new brew, the Budweiser Discovery Reserve American Red Lager – in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing – to keep the concertgoers hydrated and energized. New to 2019’s activation included a guitar pick mosaic wall, oversized playable guitars, one of its kind Polaroid Wall, and a vintage neon and solar charging station. Budweiser Country Club once again truly established itself as the top-notch provider for the ultimate and authentic country music fan experience. Can’t wait to see what 2020 will bring.
PANDORA SOUND ON LOUNGE
Pandora, the well renowned music company, traveled to the desert to host a Sound on Lounge experience for the festival attendees. Located in a highly accessible area of the main public area of the festival grounds, notable features included multi-photo moments, a customized body marble painting station, free giveaways, a dance video experience and continuous beats by Jerzy. Stagecoach is the first of 5 festivals Pandora partnered with this year to give attendees a unique and enthralling music festival experience.
EVERY ONE
An important addition to the festival this year included Every One tent, launched by Goldenvoice, which provided a quiet and peaceful place for festivalgoers to find refuge amongst the stimulating music festival environment. In response to the recent mass shooting tragedies, including Route 91, Golden Voice partnered with Our Music My Body, Planned Parenthood, Coachella Valley Sexual Assault Services and the Trans Community Project to create this safe space for festivalgoers to reset their minds and center themselves.
We had a moment to talk to Veline Mojarro, director of equity, safety and inclusion at Goldenvoice, about the valuable movement.
How did you get involved with festivals specifically?
“My work background is in sexual harassment prevention and diversity, equity inclusion work. I’ve done this work and all sorts of spaces and education and nonprofits and corporate business all over and in different countries. I got called into Goldenvoice and a consultant asked me, what do you think? We really want to lean into this prevention work and support festivalgoers. And I was like, great, let’s do it. And I kind of jumped in and brought all those elements together.”
How’s the response been?
“So positive, such a positive response. Especially at Stagecoach, we’ve had such a verbal, outward expression of gratitude, particularly from the Route 91 survivors that are not even necessarily using our services, but coming and saying, “Thank you for doing this, thank you. I want to just make sure I know where this is because I might need this later.” And it’s just amazing that we’re not only supporting folks but also helping folks to be proactive in their mental and emotional health. We’re prepared to support that community. I think the overpowering of gratitude is something that has been really humbling and shows that the people really need it.
Goldenvoice hired our staff and really took this on. It was really important for them to make it an integrated program, in that we’re also servicing staff. We’re also sending out messaging internally, externally, really trying to get everyone on board. To thousands and thousands of employees. That impact alone is powerful.”
Where do you see everyone in five years?
“I hope the word goes deeper. I hope it becomes more sustainable and a community on a community level. I hope that it’s not something that only exists for Goldenvoice. I hope it extends to all festivals and spaces and it goes nationwide. This work isn’t meant to be hidden or kept in like a bubble; this work is for sharing. It’s meant to happen in our homes, in our work spaces, with our friends, with our neighbors. This is a movement that everyone needs to get on.”
Stagecoach 2019 absolutely delivered a fun-filled weekend full of laughter, smiles, those iconic Ferris wheel photo opportunities, sunshine, friendship and memories. We certainly kicked the dust up, figuratively and literally, and we look forward to coming back next year to experience more.
