Coachella is one of the largest and most recognizable music festivals across not only the U.S., but the entire globe. As festival season approaches — and Coachella organizers remain silent on their 2024 lineup — fans and members of the music industry are becoming frustrated.

It’s the most talked-about and profitable music event, bringing in around 125,000 daily fans to the small desert town of Indio, California across two weekends every April. While this year’s event is slated to take place from April 12 to 14 and 19 to 21, no lineup has been announced at this time.

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Over the past two weeks, we’ve seen festival lineups slowly popping-up across the U.S.: BottleRock Napa Valley, Boston Calling, Alabama’s Hangout Fest, and Bonnaroo. However, the festivals that announced lineups as of late are far from southern California — likely due to Coachella’s radius clause, which first came to light in 2012.

The clause prohibits acts from performing at any festival in North America from December 15 to May 1; they’re also barred from playing in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, or San Diego for up to three months before and after the festival. Additionally, artists cannot announce festival appearances for the other 45 states in North America until after the Coachella lineup is announced in January — with exceptions for South by Southwest in Austin, Ultra Miami, and AEG’s New Orleans Jazzfest.

While the radius clause is strict, and even sparked an antitrust lawsuit in 2018 against AEG for its “monopoly clause,” artists are still very willing to accept the terms brought forth by Coachella’s organizer, AEG-owned Goldenvoice. After all, performing at Coachella is an experience artists can only dream of achieving throughout their career, helping catapult them into the spotlight with hundreds of thousands of fans tuning-in.

The music festival source Festive Owl wrote on X that after speaking to sources within the industry, Coachella’s ongoing billing and lineup issues are causing delays in announcements for various festivals nationwide. Festive Owl noted that “with still no confirmed timetable, both fans and multiple events are left in the dark.”

One specific festival being impacted is Resonate Suwannee, which will take place from April 4 to 6 in Live Oak, Florida. The fest took to Instagram this week to share that their artist announcement would be coming soon but “due to the radius clause of a certain festival in California, we need to wait to announce the artist we had planned to release today.”

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While no specific reason for the delay has been confirmed at this time, fans are wondering if Coachella lost a headliner again, giving flashbacks to last year’s event where blink-182 had to step-up and fill-in for Frank Ocean. Rumors are circulating that the festival was trying to book popstar Dua Lipa — but failed to make it work — and Rage Against the Machine, who just announced they’re breaking-up.

A report also surfaced earlier this week from the music industry trade source HitsDailyDouble that Lana Del Rey and Tyer the Creator are slated to headline Coachella, while organizers are reportedly in talks of adding Doja Cat and Peso Pluma to the bill. This made fans even more confused, however, as Del Rey was just announced as the headliner for Alabama’s Hangout Fest.

Other large-scale festivals that have not released their lineup yet include Austin City Limits, EDC Las Vegas, Governors Ball, and Lollapalooza, among others.

Fans took to X to air-out their frustrations:

Although the lineup delay is causing frustration among festivalgoers, it hasn’t prevented tickets from going on sale; Coachella has long put passes on sale well before its lineups are announced, relying on its reputation as the anchor festival for the early part of the year to entire ticketbuyers without knowledge of the performers.

Passes first went on sale in June 2023, and interested attendees can sign-up for the waitlist via the official Coachella site. If you’re looking to score a pass before the lineup is revealed, tickets are available via sites like MEGASeats (use code TICKETNEWS for 10% off your order) and Ticket Club, where readers can obtain a free membership and avoid service fees with the code TICKETNEWS.

At this time, fans, artists, and festival organizers alike will simply have to wait for an update from Coachella and Goldenvoice — further solidifying their significance and grip on the music industry — and therefore cementing the overall 2024 festival season schedule.

Stay tuned with TicketNews, as we will provide more updates as information becomes available.