While the horses are away, the kids will play.

This Saturday and Sunday, music lovers will stampede their way to the Empire Polo Fields in the desert outside Palm Springs for the fourth run of the eclectic Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. This year, not only will they be chomping at the bit for performances by the long-silent Beastie Boys, or the ?ber-hip White Stripes, but they'll be there to see nearly 75 other bands, deejays and performers, along with an expanded film festival and newly added spoken-word sessions.

Anchored by two main stages and peppered with plenty of tents for deejays and smaller acts, Coachella's bill includes Queens of the Stone Age, Blur, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy Pop, Gomez, the Hives, Badly Drawn Boy, Groove Armada, the Polyphonic Spree, N.E.R.D., Sonic Youth, Bens Harper and Folds, and a double dose of art-theater troupe the Blue Man Group, who are debuting their touring live show.

Lest you worry such a lineup could make attendees go all Woodstock '99, think again. Goldenvoice, the festival's creator, has promised the 70,000 attendees get free parking, ample drinking fountains and rows of picnic tables under plenty of shade--all on a well-groomed grass field that keeps even the Southern California desert's temperature from getting out of hand.

Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett says it's just about keeping in touch with the people. "I rarely, if ever, have used a restroom in the backstage area," he says. "I go always in the public area. Because I want to experience what the ticket buyer is going through that day. We've been doing this for a while, so luckily now I can spend my time watching bands and visiting booths and feeling what's wrong and what's right. Coincidentally, I like the artists that play Coachella, so that's kind of cool."

The bands share Tollett's fan mentality. After touring with the Strokes and Dashboard Confessional to promote his 2001 disc Sha Sha, singer-songwriter Ben Kweller can't wait to be in the crowd again.

"When you're on tour you never get to see too much new music, because you're always playing your music," he says. "But at a festival, you get to catch up on the bands that you've missed all year."

But it almost wasn't like this. Coachella's 1999 debut, also a two-dayer anchored by Morrissey and Rage Against the Machine, was a hit with fans, but a financial disaster.

"The day after the show, we knew what we lost and we were devastated," says Tollett. "But everyone called and said that we had to do it again. I was like, 'You've got to be kidding?' But we learned a lot and people came back. It got easier from there."

After taking a year off and starting again with a one-day fete in 2001 and returning to the two-day model with Oasis and Bj?rk headlining last year, Tollett says that they're "doing fine" now--and growing. In a tented Coachella Film Festival area, fans can lounge on bubble furniture while watching music-related reels that range from out-of-print Bob Marley concert footage to a doc on electro wild-childs Fischerspooner. Hipsters such as Fugazi's Ian McKaye, and hip-hoppers Michael Franti have signed on for intimate spoken-word performances. There will be more artwork throughout the area and, for the first year, there will be on-site camping.

"I can't wait to see what develops over there," says Tollett, who doesn't expect any trouble. "I think because it's far out of the way and what it costs, you don't get people who just drop by. You get people who are driving--or flying--hours to see the Polyphonic Spree. They're not there to cause trouble."

Like any promoter should, he just hopes everyone has a good time.

"I've talked to plenty of people who have marked it in their calendar. They're coming every year no matter what," says Tollett. "That's a good feeling. But it's also a responsibility on us. We have to make sure that we don't let anybody down."

As long as they clear the stray horse poop, everything should be just fine.