Dive Brief:

• Amazon is setting up Amazon Lockers at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this year. For the two weekends of the event (April 12-14 and April 19-21) the nearly 100,000 attendees can ship orders to the lockers at no extra charge, the company said in a press release emailed to Retail Dive.

• The temporary lockers join others in more than 900 U.S. cities and towns, including at Whole Foods stores, apartment buildings and college campuses.

• Festival-goers will have the option to order ahead or choose same-day delivery and will retrieve purchases using a barcode sent to their phones. 

Dive Insight:

Of the many pickup opportunities at Coachella, Amazon’s represents perhaps the most practical, enabling budget-minded attendees to avoid the price-gouging on food and supplies that has become rampant during the event.

It's surprising that it took the e-commerce giant this long to cash in on Coachella, considering how many fashion and food brands have set up shop during the event over the years. Those brands' pop-up shops and trucks cater to a customer base that is essentially captive in the desert, made thirsty by the 100-degree heat and, in some cases, dehydrating activities. 

But this is not Amazon's only idea for capitalizing on such events. The company was granted a patent last year for an airborne fulfillment center — essentially a blimp — mentioning large populous events like music festivals or sporting events in the patent application as a target use. But since drones would be required to fulfill orders from mid-air, current regulation is not ready for that scheme to come to fruition yet.   

"Bringing the convenience of Amazon Lockers to Coachella will help customers focus on their experience instead of worrying about forgetting something at home or having to carry it in with them," Patrick Supanc, Amazon's Worldwide Director of Lockers and Pickup, said in a statement.

The question now is will there be enough lockers?