It’s time to dust off the boots and break out the cowboy hat as the Stagecoach Country Music Festival makes its mighty return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio April 29-May 1 with headliners Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs.

For the first time in three years, the sprawling festival grounds — which will be transformed into a more honky-tonk-like setting following two weekends of Stagecoach’s sister fest, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival — will welcome country music fans with three days of live music, savory barbecue, craft beer and cocktails, line-dancing, art installations, horse demonstrations and other attractions.

“It feels so wonderful to be back in the saddle,” Stagecoach talent buyer Stacy Vee said of finally bringing the event back after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is what we love,” she continued. “We care about this event, we care about each other and all we’ve wanted to do is be back on the festival sites. We’ve missed each other, we’ve missed the artists, the fans and the culture. This is our life and we’re all so excited to just get back to doing what we love.”

Maren Morris, The Black Crowes, Smokey Robinson, Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker, Brothers Osborne, Lee Brice, Midland and more will also perform. Though the top-tier reserved seating and VIP passes are mostly sold-out, fans can still purchase general admission passes for $379-$459 at stagecoachfestival.com.

Here’s what you need to know before you go, what’s new and what’s returning this year:

A more diverse lineup

For its 14th installment, the Stagecoach lineup is more musically and culturally diverse. The roster, which features more than 50 artists performing across three major stages each day, boasts a number of Black and Latino acts and several LGBTQ performers.

“We’re building a country music festival for today and how a country music festival should look and sound like today,” Vee said. “There are so many artists out there that are unique and are working so hard and they deserve the recognition.”

Country and soul singer Yola, who will perform on the Palomino Stage on May 1, is a Black British woman who has worked with artists like Massive Attack and The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. She’s also one of the rare artists to perform at both Coachella and Stagecoach in the same year.

R&B legend Smokey Robinson will make his first-ever Stagecoach appearance headlining the Palomino Stage on May 1. Founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens will also be at the Palomino on May 1. Singer-songwriter and banjo player Amythyst Kiah is opening the Palomino Stage on April 29 while country rapper and producer Breland closes out the opening day of the fest by hosting the first-ever Friday Late Night in Palomino after-party. Latin alt-country band The Mavericks, with its hits like “What a Crying Shame” and “All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down,” will also be at the Palomino on May 1.

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Up-and-coming performers including singer-songwriter and rapper Shy Carter, who has famously written songs for Kane Brown, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban, and country singer and pianist Reyna Roberts will both be featured on the SiriusXM Spotlight Stage on April 30.

There’s also strong queer representation at the festival with Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile headlining the Palomino Stage on April 29. TJ Osborne of The Brothers Osborne delivered a tearful acceptance speech at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas last month as the duo won an award for the song “Younger Me,” a song he wrote about coming out as gay last year. The duo will hit the Mane Stage just before Carrie Underwood on April 30. Masked country singer-songwriter Orville Peck, who is gay, also performed at both weekends of Coachella and will host the Saturday night after-party at the Palomino at Stagecoach; Peck said this type of representation at a major country music festival is important.

“Stagecoach is arguably the most mainstream country music festival that happens in the States, so I think it makes sense that it would be a space that would now need to start incorporating diverse artists that exist in country music and not just like this stigma of Nashville-born kind of whatever artists,” he said. “It is a very diverse genre. It always has been and it always will be, so it makes sense that Stagecoach would need to reflect that.”

What’s new

Following DJ Diplo’s lively Sunday evening after-party on the Palomino Stage in 2019, promoters have extended the after-hours festivities and Late Night in Palomino will take over following the headlining sets on the Mane Stage each evening. Breland kicks things off Friday night, followed by Orville Peck on Saturday and Diplo will once again close out the festival on Sunday night.

“There will be a couple of surprises in my set,” Peck assured. “Just keep looking over your shoulder.”

Though Coachella fans have been able to tune into YouTube for nearly a decade to check in on the festival happenings and performances, Stagecoach has finally partnered with YouTube to offer a livestreaming experience and exclusive content from throughout the three-day event via the festival’s official YouTube channel.

The Compton Cowboys, a crew of 10 Black horseback riders who hail from Richland Farms, a small ranch located in Compton, will make their Stagecoach debut. They’ll be showing off their horses, doing riding demos and sharing their stories on site.

Returning favorites

Television host and restaurateur Guy Fieri will once again curate the Stagecoach Smokehouse and bring in top barbecue pit bosses from all over the country to serve up a variety of flavors and styles of barbecue. He’ll also lead live demos throughout the day and offer tastings.

Singer-songwriter Nikki Lane, who also owns the vintage fashion store High Class Hillbilly in Nashville, is back on deck to curate Nikki Lane’s Stage Stop Marketplace, which will include a variety of vendors, a shaded cocktail bar and the Stage Stop Horseshoe Stage which will spotlight several singer-songwriters.

The SiriusXM Spotlight Stage, located in front of the Mane Stage and behind reserved seating, will return to highlight up-and-coming talent including Ryan Griffin, Walker Country, Caylee Hammack, Laci Kaye Booth, Hailey Whitters and Callista Clark.

Fans can also step out of the heat and into the air-conditioned Honky Tonk Dance Hall, where dancers of all levels of experience can learn how to line dance and two-step along to live music courtesy of a variety of DJs.

Stagecoach Country Music Festival

When: April 29-May 1

Where: Empire Polo Club, 81-800 Avenue 51, Indio

Tickets: $379-$459 general admission passes are available at stagecoachfestival.com