Health officials have ordered the Coachella music festival, scheduled for April, to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is the third time the pandemic has forced the annual open-air festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of fans to the California desert to be postponed or canceled.
“The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival currently scheduled for April 2021 are canceled,” said Riverside County Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser, in an order issued Friday. Kaiser’s order also canceled the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, also scheduled for April.
Due to the pandemic, public health officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser signed today (January 29) a public health order canceling the Coachella Valley and Stagecoach Country Music music and festivals planned for April 2021. We look forward to seeing when events will return. https://t.co/YAIn8uTea9
– Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2021
“This order aims to reduce the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19,” says the request. “If COVID-19 were detected at these festivals, the scope and number of participants and the nature of the venue would make it impossible, if not impossible, to track down those who may be at risk.”
Coachella’s 2020 festival was originally scheduled for April 2020, then postponed to October 2020, before finally being dropped until April 2021. There is no word from organizers or health officials about when Coachella will be rescheduled, but Advertising panel is reporting that it may be postponed to October. And if vaccine delivery continues to be delayed and coronavirus cases continue to multiply, we are likely to start seeing other major spring and summer events postponed or canceled as well.
Coachella organizers did not immediately respond to a request for more information on Saturday.