Coachella is canceled again – The New York Times



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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which draws more than 100,000 fans from around the world to Southern California daily, is taking place for the third time.

A county health ordinance canceled the event, as well as the country music festival, Stagecoach, on Friday, citing the recent virus outbreak that has plagued California for months, despite some recent progress. Both were due to start in April.

In the order, Dr Cameron Kaiser, a Riverside County public health official, said the two events were too risky “gatherings of international significance” amid the rise and emergence of more variants. contagious.

“If Covid-19 were detected during these festivals, the scope and number of participants and the nature of the place would make it impossible, if not impossible, to follow up on those who might be at risk,” says the order.

The Coachella Festival, founded in 1999 and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, attracts up to 125,000 people per day and has become a benchmark for multi-billion dollar tourism.

Festivals were among the first major events canceled in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic. They were postponed to October and fall, again postponed to April 2021.

New dates have not been announced.

As of Friday evening, Stagecoach’s homepage had its refund policy from 2020 posted on the landing page, but had yet to release a statement. Coachella’s website didn’t mention the festival’s cancellation but highlighted its new clothing line that released late last year.

Although Coachella is one of the biggest and most famous music events in the country, Stagecoach is a smaller country music festival presented by the same promoter, Goldenvoice.

Last year Coachella was originally scheduled to be headlined by rapper Travis Scott, singer Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine combined, along with dozens of other acts of all genres. Stagecoach was to feature Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, ZZ Top and more.

The concert industry has been essentially frozen since mid-March, when AEG and Live Nation, the companies that dominate the live music arena, suspended all touring in North America in response to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the artists – along with their teams and all other affiliated workers – not knowing when such large-scale events will return. Other major music festivals, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, Levitation in Austin, and Summerfest in Milwaukee, were also canceled for the year.

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