Coachella arrests tally
- Authorities arrested 203 people across Coachella’s two weekends, according to a new festival report. - Police listed public intoxication, illegal drug possession, and fake IDs among the primary offenses. - The arrests are part of the festival’s post-event accounting and public-safety conversations this year. (ktla.com)
Police arrested 203 people across Coachella’s two 2026 weekends, according to post-festival figures released by authorities. (ktla.com) Indio police said the most common offenses included public intoxication, illegal drug possession and fake identification. During Weekend 2 alone, officers made 106 arrests, including 52 for illegal drug possession, eight for public intoxication and 13 for fake IDs. (ktla.com) Weekend 1 accounted for 97 arrests, up from 95 in 2025, and police said 59 of those cases involved drug possession. Indio police also reported 14 false-ID arrests, three drug-or-alcohol intoxication arrests and 20 arrests in other categories during the first weekend. (kesq.com) The 2026 tally was slightly lower than the 223 arrests reported at Coachella in 2025, but higher than the 193 arrests reported in 2024. KTLA reported the festival grounds have a maximum daily capacity of about 125,000 people. (ktla.com; ktla.com) Coachella ran April 10-12 and April 17-19 this year at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, and organizers listed both weekends as sold out before the second round began. The festival marked its 25th edition in 2026. (coachella.com; kesq.com; wikipedia.org) Police tied the arrest totals to a broader enforcement push around the event, especially on drug possession, underage drinking and impaired driving. Sergeant Abe Plata told KESQ before Weekend 2 that officers were focused on “illegal narcotics,” minors trying to buy alcohol and fake IDs. (kesq.com) The post-event accounting also included non-arrest enforcement. During Weekend 2, police issued 85 citations for unlawful use of a disability placard, after Weekend 1 citations in that category fell to 32 from 82 a year earlier. (ktla.com; kesq.com) Plata told the Orange County Register, as quoted by KTLA, that most attendees caused no trouble despite the crowd size. The final numbers leave Coachella with a lower arrest total than last year, but still more than 200 cases for police and festival officials to account for after the two-weekend event. (ktla.com)
