At the Empire Polo Club in Indio, six weeks before the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is set to kick off, the peaked white tents are going up across the rolling green lawns.

The rainbow-tinted "Spectra" observation deck looms over the field, ready for fans from around the world to soak in the panoramas as Travis Scott, Rage Against the Machine, Frank Ocean and more than 150 acts perform.

Twenty-five miles away, Barbara Cooper and Steve Widders walked their dog on a hiking path by the Indian Canyons Golf Resort in Palm Springs, and they were growing a bit nervous — about Coronavirus possibly coming to their town, and how it might affect one of the biggest weeks for tourism in their area.

Just steps away from the Empire Polo Club in the Tack Room Tavern, however, Patty Copeland and Carole Taylor were each visiting family members who were longtime residents in the Coachella Valley.

Her 30-year-old daughter has attended three Coachella and Stagecoach country music festivals, but given that they both live in San Francisco, just miles from a cruise ship rife with infected patients docked offshore, "I don't even want her going to work right now."

She's from Austin, and for years managed the Eastside Tavern there, which was a popular rental for tech and media firms during South by Southwest (HBO once bought it out for an interactive "Westworld" experience).