A week after shooting four of the biggest names in metal, I was back in Indio for Stagecoach, California’s Country Music Festival. The weather was great, the line up was strong and there were less photographers than at the big 4. So life should have been perfect and for some acts it was. The two smaller stages allowed some great up close and personal photography especially for act like Mel Tillis, k.d. lang, Lukas Nelson and Jack Ingram.

On the downside, two of the Mane stage acts (yes, they called it the Mane stage, not a typo) Kenny Chesney and Carrie Underwood required photographers to shoot from in front of the soundboard, far away from the stage. The other real downside was the size of the photo-pit at the Mane stage; it was tiny, I mean one person wide and impossible to move in. Once in position there was no way to move left or right at all so all the shots of an artist were from the exact same position. The wasn’t a huge problem with most acts but when it came to Rascal Flatts, they didn’t move much so it was close to impossible to get great shots of all the musicians.

Here is a little info on the Stagecoach weekend.

• 3 Stages
• 34 different bands
• over 2400 images
• 110,000 attendees
• 2 Soundboard shoots
• 79 degrees was the high on Saturday with the lows in the 50s
• The outfit of choice seemed to be a combination of cowboy hat and boots with very little else
• Having to wear the same wristband for two days is annoying

Next up… The photos