Both 2021 Coachella and Stagecoach festivals have been cancelled by health officials in California’s Riverside County due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival and its country-music counterpart, Stagecoach Country Music festival, had been scheduled for April 2020 before being pushed back to October 2020, then rescheduled again for April 2021, as the music industry continued to react to the pandemic.
“A year without Coachella and Stagecoach is hard for us to comprehend, but we have every intention of returning in 2021,” events organiser Goldenvoice said in a statement released last June.
Now, in an announcement from the Riverside County Public Health Officer posted on Friday (29 January), both events have been shut down “based on concerns of a fall resurgence” of Covid-19.
“We look forward to when the events may return,” Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr Cameron Kaiser said in a tweet.
Among the scheduled headliners at Coachella this year were Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Rage Against the Machine.
There is currently no word on whether the festivals would be rescheduled, and event producer Goldenvoice has not commented yet.
The last time the festivals were postponed, Goldenvoice said all passes for the 2020 festivals would be honored in 2021. Current pass holders would receive an email with “further instructions to request a refund or to roll over to next year”.
As USA Today points out, both Coachella and Stagecoach typically bring in a substantial amount of money to the Coachella Valley in California, generating around $400m (£290m) in local economic impact.
Additionally, Riverside County supervisor V Manuel Perez said in January that he was in talks with Goldenvoice to launch a mass vaccination site.
“We know what they can do with the concerts, all the logistics and planning that takes place,” Mr Perez said.
