Two popular California music festivals were canceled again due to the coronavirus pandemic, local health officials announced on Friday.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival were scheduled to take place in April, but have been canceled, Riverside County public health officials said.
Festivals take place annually at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located about 2.5 hours away from Los Angeles, and are known for attracting large crowds.
“This order aims to reduce the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19,” said the county health department in a statement tweeted by director of public health Cameron Kaiser.
The recent cancellations mark the third time that festivals have been postponed since the pandemic began.
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
Coachella and Stagecoach were originally postponed from spring 2020 to autumn 2020. Both festivals were postponed to April 2021, before being canceled on Friday.
The Riverside County Department of Public Health has said in order that the two “international reach” festivals attract “hundreds of thousands of participants.” Due to the estimated number of people attending the two events, tracking COVID-19 case contracts would be “unfeasible, if not impossible”.
Kaiser has not indicated when the events will be rescheduled.
As of January 29, Riverside County had 271,910 total cases of COVID-19, with 1,128 people currently hospitalized, according to the county health department.