Stagecoach Festival Details Announced

Specifics about Coachella’s countrified sister festival, which Paste reported on back in November, have finally been released.

The two-day festival, slated to be held at Indio, Calif.’s Empire Polo Field one week after Coachella 2007, will feature a whole slew of big-name country acts performing on four stages May 5th and 6th of this year. Headliners include a number of big-name mainstream country artists like George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, and Sugarland, but the festival will also feature alt-country and bluegrass stages that will doubtlessly play host to a number of lesser-known acts.

Paste favorites Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, Emmylou Harris, and Neko Case are also slated to appear.

A storytelling stage will also feature appearances by Texas poet laureate Red Stegall and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, and festival-goers will have a chance to take saddle-making lessons, view folk-art installations, and attend seminars to hone their lassoing and blacksmith skills.

And the festival name? It’s been dubbed Stagecoach, a nod to its sister festival Coachella, California’s wild west roots, and the platforms on which the country greats will play.

Tickets go on sale January 20th. Here’s an incomplete roster of performers, from Billboard.com:

May 5:
George Strait
Alan Jackson
Sara Evans
Jason Aldean
Eric Church
Willie Nelson
Lucinda Williams
Neko Case
Robert Earl Keen
Richie Furay
Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson
David Serby
Earl Scruggs
Nickel Creek
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Grascals
The John Cowan Band
Ramblin' Jack Elliot
Riders In The Sky
Red Steagall
Waddie Mitchell
Sons Of The San Joaquin
Cowboy Nation

May 6:
Kenny Chesney
Brooks & Dunn
Sugarland
Gary Allan
Pat Green
Emmylou Harris
Kris Kristofferson
Raul Malo
Junior Brown
Drive-By Truckers
Alejandro Escovedo
Railbenders
Ricky Skaggs
Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver
Marty Stuart
The Del McCoury Band
Abigail Washburn with the Sparrow Quartet featuring Ben Sollee, Sasey Driessen and Bela Fleck
The Flatlanders
Garrison Keillor
Baxter Black
Cowboy Celtic
Don Edwards
Katy Moffat