How the Acrisure Arena Became an Unlikely Desert Oasis for Music Fans

Is there such a thing as… an intimate arena? That may seem like the type of oxymoron that could only belong to the show-biz hype lexicon. But plenty of southern Californians would swear that it’s true, once they’ve been to the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, which in its three years open has turned into a sort of destination venue for music fans who like to see a superstar tour in a venue that’s just a little less than super-sized. That holds true not just for the local population of Coachella Valley residents but concertgoers from Los Angeles and even farther afield who, for now, consider it an almost well-kept secret of an alternative venue for certain tours. It’s worth a couple of hours on the freeway, for some, to see a Paul McCartney in a place where no seat counts as a nosebleed.