Another big one bites the dust.
Coachella, one of the biggest festivals in this country that usually takes place in Indio, CA during April, was postponed to October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While states are starting to slowly reopen, it looks like large scale events, such as festivals, won’t be making a comeback in 2020.
Rumors of Goldenvoice asking its headliners to perform in 2021 began circulating a few weeks ago. Today, Billboard reported that Coachella 2020 is canceled. Not only are the difficulties of the pandemic coming into light in regards to the ability to have that many people (Coachella clocks in about 125,000 people a day around the infamous Ferris wheel), but the pandemic has hit the company as well. Goldenvoice runs Coachella. Reports of AEG, the parent company of Goldenvoice, has been having company-wide layoffs as it is an industry that this pandemic has not been kind to.
While it seems certain that events such as Coachella won’t be able to happen at all this year according to experts, the outlook of the event in 2021 is also in question:
Officials with Goldenvoice are 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. About 40% of ticket buyers have requested refunds for this year’s festival and AEG officials think they could probably pull off the festival in April at 60% capacity, but are holding off on making a final rescheduling decision until there is more clarity on the pandemic’s overall trajectory. – Billboard
With a pandemic that has been changing and reshaping the world daily, we have no idea where we could be this time next year. Hopefully, we’re all able to dance again soon. Until then, Indio will have to wait to see us next year in our full ‘Chella glory.
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