Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — one of the country’s most highly-anticipated events — was one of the first large-scale festivals to be postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Although organizers originally pushed the event to October, promoters are now reportedly in-talks to hold the celebration next year.
According to Billboard, Coachella’s production company Goldenvoice is in-talks to postpone the event to next spring, though that might not even be possible. The company is reportedly “still trying to determine whether the two-weekend, 125,000-person-per-day festival will make a limited-capacity return in April 2021 or a larger, higher capacity comeback in October 2021.” Already, 40% of ticketbuyers have requested refunds, leaving the possibility of hosting an event at 60% capacity in April.
The company is “holding off on making a final rescheduling decision until there is more clarity on the pandemic’s overall trajectory.”
Coachella, originally slated to take place over two weekends in April, would have featured headlining performances from Rage Against The Machine, Travis Scott, and Frank Ocean, as well as sets from huge acts like Calvin Harris, Disclosure, and Lana Del Rey. The festival’s financial impact in Indio has certainly been felt during the postponement, as Coachella typically brings in around $700 million to businesses in the area.
This follows word earlier this week that the nation’s largest music festival, Summerfest, has officially been cancelled for the first time in its 53-year history. The event, officially slated to run from June 24 to July 5, was pushed to September before officially called-off. Additionally, Live Nation’s Lollapalooza in Chicago just announced its cancellation; the annual event in Grant Park would have taken place late July/early August, though after weeks of consideration, organizers were forced to cancel to abide with city guidelines.
As summer approaches, the live event industry is ultimately halted. Concert tours are either being postponed to 2021 or completely cancelled, while promoters like Live Nation are opting to hold drive-in movie theater shows to keep the spirit of concerts alive. Health experts have warned that mass gatherings should not take place until at least 2021, yet some states are adamant about reopening and holding socially-distant shows.
See our full, updating list of festivals cancelled or postponed amid coronavirus here.
