Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, located in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies 23 miles (37 km) east of Palm Springs, 75 miles (121 km) east of Riverside, 127 miles (204 km) east of Los Angeles, and 148 miles (238 km) northeast of San Diego. The word Indio is Spanish for Indian.

Because of the numerous festivals and special events held annually in Indio, the Chamber of Commerce deemed Indio's official nickname to be "The City of Festivals". The Date Festival/County Fairgrounds is a facility that hosts various events year round such as music concerts, 4x4 monster truck rallies, rodeos, and other special events.

Two major annual festivals are the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival and the Indio International Tamale Festival. Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival is held each February at the Riverside County Fairgrounds, located on Highway 111 in the heart of Indio. Since 1947, this festival has celebrated the date fruit crop of the Coachella Valley. The Tamale Festival is held each December on the streets of Old Town Indio and holds one Guinness World Record as the largest tamale festival (120,000 in attendance, Dec. 2–3, 2000) and once held the record for the world's largest tamale, created by Chef John Sedlar, but that record has since been surpassed.

In 1993, Paul Tollett, president of Goldenvoice, booked a Pearl Jam concert at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, and six years later, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was born. Since 2001, Coachella has been an annual event that has brought notable music acts to the desert, including: AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N' Roses, Prince, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Radiohead, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Pixies, The Cure, The White Stripes, Jay-Z, Tool, Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, Roger Waters and several others. Coachella extended the festival to three days in 2007. Organizers eliminated single-day tickets in 2010 and went to three-day passes only. The festival continues to draw large numbers of concertgoers to Indio and the Empire Polo Club, a venue that Rolling Stone said possessed a "lush beauty... that made the desert seem very far away."

In May 2007, Goldenvoice, promoters of Coachella, started Stagecoach, a three-day country music festival held the weekend following the Coachella. Performers have included George Strait, Kenny Chesney, the Eagles, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, and Kid Rock.

In 2013, OC Weekly's Dave Barton described the arts scene in Indio with "seems to consist of Johnny Cash tributes, chalk art, camel and ostrich races, and Neil Simon revivals."

On April 15, 2016, it was reported that Goldenvoice was trying to bring together The Rolling Stones, The Who, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters, and Neil Young for a 3-day mega concert known as Desert Trip. Desert Trip went on to take place at the same venue as the Coachella Music Festival, and happened over two three-day weekends, on October 7–9 and 14–16.

Despite becoming the highest-grossing music festival in history, Goldenvoice founder Paul Tollett has not announced any plans for a second Desert Trip, stating that it's not necessary for it to "turn into another franchise festival".