Head Trip's Saturday Night Died at 9 PM — Lightning Forced the Evacuation in Indio

INDIO, CA

Goldenvoice's big debut of Head Trip got as far as Saturday night and then the sky won. The first-edition EDM festival at the Empire Polo Club was evacuated around 9 p.m. Saturday, and organizers told the crowd about half an hour later that the day's performances were done — canceled for the rest of the evening.

The message that went out through the festival app didn't leave much room for interpretation: "There is approaching severe weather. The show is suspended. Exit the venue the way you entered and seek shelter in personal vehicles or shuttles. Stay tuned in the app for updates."

The timing was brutal. FISHER and Chris Lake were wrapping up their Under Construction back-to-back set when the music was halted, according to CULTR's on-the-ground coverage. The night's headliner, Calvin Harris, was supposed to close the show. He never took the stage.

The weather didn't sneak up on anyone. Goldenvoice had already adjusted Saturday's schedule earlier in the day to anticipate Tropical Storm Rachel, compressing Harris's closing set to end at 11 p.m. instead of the originally planned 1 a.m. Then the National Weather Service issued an airport weather warning for Palm Springs International Airport — about 20 miles from the festival grounds — around 9:10 p.m. Saturday, flagging the potential for cloud-to-ground lightning between 9:30 and 11 p.m. as thunderstorms moved in. The storm, part of a broader system churning through Southern California ahead of Rachel's landfall, was expected to clear after 11 p.m.

Rachel has been the story of the whole weekend in the desert. The storm weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm as it tracked toward Mexico and the United States, with forecasts showing it likely making landfall in Baja California while weakening further. The National Weather Service had been warning for days that the Coachella Valley was in for a rainy, windy, cooler weekend — a little over half an inch of rain for the valley Sunday morning, southerly winds of 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35, and around 1.5 inches in the mountains west of Palm Springs as the storm hits early Sunday.

And Sunday is the real problem for Head Trip. A wind advisory is in effect from 2 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday for the Coachella Valley, with gusts of 35 to 45 mph expected and forecasters warning of downed tree limbs and potential power outages. Paul Steward, a meteorologist in the NWS's San Diego office, said before the weekend: "Sunday is pretty much going to be your day of weather out there, whether it be rain, or winds, or what have you." As of late Saturday night, the festival had provided no updates on Sunday's planned performances — day two of a two-day festival, with the worst weather of the weekend inbound.

This is the second time this year a Goldenvoice festival at the Empire Polo grounds has been shut down by weather. Stagecoach, the country festival held at the same location in April, also faced weather trouble when dangerous high-velocity winds and blowing sand forced an evacuation. Two evacuations, two festivals, one venue, one year — that's a pattern Goldenvoice is going to have to answer for when it plans its desert calendar. The Stagecoach evacuation is the direct precedent: high winds hit mid-festival in April while Marshmello was on stage, the grounds were cleared, and when the festival reopened around 9 p.m., the night had to be rebuilt on the fly — Lainey Wilson's headlining set was pushed back an hour, and Riley Green and Journey were cut from the reworked lineup entirely. Head Trip now faces the same math for Sunday, when Dom Dolla and DJ Harvey are supposed to close out the festival's second and final day.

The festival itself was a big swing. Head Trip follows in the footsteps of Goldenvoice's previous one-off desert festivals, Desert Trip and Power Trip — a two-day, one-off EDM takeover of the Polo grounds with a lineup led by Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, plus Skrillex, FISHER, Chris Lake and more. Two-day GA passes with shuttle ran $589, with VIP at $899. Doors opened at 3 p.m. Saturday, and per earlier reports the venue saw only periodic showers before conditions deteriorated fast.

For now, ticket-holders are left watching the festival app for word on Sunday. The livestream, per CULTR, now says a replay will be played — which is a nice gesture for people who paid to be there and a pretty thin substitute for anyone who flew in for Calvin Harris.

Calvin Harris's closing set (already shortened to end 11 PM) never happened. FISHER b2b Chris Lake were wrapping up when the music stopped.