Coachella postponed for the third time in twelve months
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will not go ahead in April 2021.
Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the public health officer in charge of Riverside County, where Coachella is held, made the announcement today (January 29). Dr. Kaiser signed a public health order cancelling the festival, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the pandemic, Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser today (Jan. 29) signed a public health order canceling Coachella Valley Music and Arts, Stagecoach Country Music festivals planned for April 2021. We look forward to when the events may return. https://t.co/YAIn8uTea9
— Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2021
As the Los Angeles Times reported, in the order Dr. Kaiser wrote, “This order is intended to reduce the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19, thereby slowing the spread of COVID-19 in communities worldwide. If COVID-19 were detected at these festivals, the scope and number of attendees and the nature of the venue would make it infeasable, if not impossible, to track those who may be placed at risk.”
Coachella had been scheduled to take place across two consecutive weekends, on April 9–11 and 16–18.
Today’s announcement marks the third time that the festival has been postponed in the last twelve months. Last March, organisers pushed the 2020 event back from April to October.
In June, the dates were once again changed from October to April 2021, as America continued to report high rates of community COVID-19 transmission.
Speculation that organisers would cancel the April 2021 event dates back to October last year. At the time, Rolling Stone reported that organisers would postpone the Californian festival until October 2021.
At time of writing, Coachella had not yet released a statement regarding new dates.
As well as cancelling Coachella, Dr. Kaiser’s health order has forced the postponement of Stagecoach Music Festival, which had also been scheduled for April. The country music event was due to take place at the same location as Coachella on the weekend after its sister festival wrapped up.