Empire Polo Club set up for Rythym, Wine and Brews Festival. (VT Photo)
Alexander Haagen IV runs one of the most successful venues in the world. His Empire Polo Club not only hosts the horsed sport, but also serves as the site of mega-festivals Coachella and Stagecoach. The experience inspired him to create his own production company: Empire Music Ventures. Haagen sat down with Venues Today to talk about how he takes care of the massive property and what he's learned along the way.
How does it feel to have one of the most successful venues in the world?
It’s humbling. Here we are in Indio, Calif., we're close to where you have Staples Center in Los Angeles and Honda Center in Anaheim. Those are where the Kings win the Stanley Cup and where the Ducks play, respectively. To be near all these great venues and still be so successful — it’s great.
What have you learned watching Goldenvoice put on festivals on your property?
We have a very talented promoter that comes in and works very hard. I’ve tried to emulate sort of how Paul Tollet has done things, as far as keeping things clean and organized. That’s really why Coachella is the best, because his foresight and vision makes it what it is. He doesn’t compromise on the vision he sees. I’ve known him for a long time and have tried to take a few plays out of his playbook.
Have you made any changes to the property since Stagecoach wrapped at the end of April?
People will show up and they won’t really know what changed, but we added a viewing area on the sides of the polo fields and for other events. We’ve added additional fountains with stonework and cobblestones around them. We’ve increased lighting and added more trees to the property. Every year we add more and more trees to the property.
Doesn't that raise your water bill?
It does, but it makes the beauty bill go up, too. I think the greatest enhancement that we’ve done is we’ve paved more than a mile going all the way around all backstages. This year, whatever dust that there was in the past coming from on site and on the event grounds won’t be there.
Before you would have to dampen the dirt to keep dust from forming, right?
We would dampen the dirt to almost where it was mud, which would knock the dust down. So that’s been the biggest improvement. It really helps with all of the equipment load-in.
Is that easier to maintain than constantly bringing in water trucks?
Now we don’t have to use water trucks, which is great. But then we had to think about keeping the paved roads clean, so instead we had to buy a street sweepers. We have our own street sweeper to constantly maintain and keep everything clean.
What was it like moving Coachella to two weekends? Did the property take a hit as far as new demands with three weekends in a row?
It’s interesting because the set up for weekend one was what it always would be. In between – because everything was set up – there was no changeover involved that you would have going into a Stagecoach. So everything was able to just get cleaned very nicely. I think Goldenvoice did a great job doing that. For weekend two, the people that show up really wouldn’t know anybody was there prior to that, which is a testament to how well we produce the show and how we try to come in and help clean up.
What happens on your end, as far as with the clean up?
We handle the infrastructure that we normally would do on site. We handle the trash pick up. We have crews of people and equipment and we handle all the clean-up. Every end of show night our teams come in and work really hard throughout the night to get it set for the next morning. But Goldenvoice pretty much does everything else.
What about watering the fields?
We do water the grass. We maintain it. Everything here has underground sprinklers, so we’re able to bring up areas not around stages. Also, this year when we put in our roads, we put a fire suppression system in and hydrants, which we can tap into with big water guns.
Is that for power washing?
Well, we can power wash, or we can spray and put a lot of water down in front of stages and really target where we want to water to keep the grass green as opposed to having to wrap things with plastic, use sprinklers, and hope nothing gets wet. So we can really target where we want to apply water.
What other types of events have you thought about having at Empire Polo Club?
We’re limited only by someone’s imagination and budget. We have one of the largest dog shows in the country. We have a lacrosse tournament that came in last year where more than 13,000 people showed up. We’ve done huge national field hockey events. We haven’t done rugby yet, but there’s a lot of different things that we can do. We’d like to do more one-off concert events similar to this set up for the Rythym, Wine and Brews Festival, featuring B.B. King, which is our first big Empire Music Ventures event.
How quickly do you turn around the event space?
Today for Rythym, Wine and Brews Festival, we have two stages and lots of seating; but there's a polo match being played on this field tomorrow at noon. Everything gets striked tonight when the last guests leave, probably around 11 p.m. Everything has to be reset for the field, including tractors running up and down to harden the ground under the stages. We can turn it all around in 12 hours.