Sunday night at the Coachella Music & Arts Festival. Photo credit: @coachaella, via Twitter
The second weekend of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival came with another increase in arrest numbers, police said Monday.
According to statistics released by the Indio Police Department, arrests increased by 36% and citations increased 81%, when compared to the second weekend of 2019 Coachella Music & Arts Festival. The festival was canceled the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the first weekend of 2022, there was a 13% increase in arrests and a 41% increase in citations compared to the 2019.
When comparing the second weekend to the first weekend of 2022, there was an increase of about 19% in arrests and 26% in citations — accumulating to a total of 245 arrests and 163 citations for the two weekends combined.
Police reported a total of 133 arrests this past weekend, the majority of them for public intoxication, and a total of 91 citations were issued, mostly for unlawful use of a handicap-parking placard.
Other arrests made this past weekend included 17 for alleged use of false identification, five for possession of drugs for sale and five unidentified arrests. There were also 91 citations issued for unlawful use of a disabled person placard, four for parking in handicap parking and one for an unregistered vehicle.
City News Service contributed to this article.