Coachella was first held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in 1999.
The festival’s official name is the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Its inaugural edition took place on October 9 and 10, 1999, at the polo grounds in the Coachella Valley. The site’s desert setting and large open fields became central to the festival’s identity.
Coachella initially struggled financially, and the 2000 event was not held. The festival returned in 2001 and later expanded from a single weekend into a major annual event with multiple weekends and a broad lineup spanning rock, pop, hip-hop, electronic music, and other genres.
The Empire Polo Club also hosts Stagecoach, a separate country-music festival created by the same promoter. Coachella and Stagecoach are therefore related through their venue and promoter, but they are different festivals with different musical identities.