Coachella: 203 Arrests

Police in Indio said 203 people were arrested across Coachella’s two 2026 weekends, a slight drop from last year. (ktla.com) The Indio Police Department reported 97 arrests during the first weekend and 106 during the second weekend of the festival at the Empire Polo Club. CBS Los Angeles said the first-weekend tally included 59 drug-possession arrests and 14 false-identification arrests. (cbsnews.com) KTLA and the East Bay Times said the most common allegations over both weekends included public intoxication, illegal drug possession and fake identification. KTLA reported the combined total was down slightly from 2025. (ktla.com, eastbaytimes.com) Coachella runs over two three-day weekends in Indio and draws tens of thousands of fans to the desert each April, which is why police release separate arrest counts after each weekend. The 2026 event took place earlier this month before Stagecoach returns to the same area next weekend. (cbsnews.com, riversidesheriff.org) The arrest totals offer one of the few public snapshots of how law enforcement measures festival-related crime from weekend to weekend. Local coverage this year focused less on violent crime and more on low-level offenses tied to drugs, intoxication and fake IDs. (kesq.com, ktla.com) Weekend Two alone produced 106 arrests, according to KESQ and CBS Los Angeles, pushing the festival’s total above 200 by April 21. That made the second weekend slightly busier for police than the first. (kesq.com, cbsnews.com) The numbers do not show convictions, only arrests reported by police after the festival weekends ended. But they do show that even with a small year-over-year decline, Coachella still required a large enforcement operation around one of California’s biggest live-music events. (ktla.com, eastbaytimes.com)