The Coachella music festival set to take place in Southern California in April has been cancelled due to the pandemic, according to a local public health official.
The annual event – one of the world’s largest and best-known music festivals – was scheduled to go ahead over two weekends in April in Riverside County.
However Dr Cameron Kaiser, the public health officer for Riverside County, said it was cancelled, blaming the dire Covid-19 situation in the region.
Due to the pandemic, Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser today (Jan. 29) signed a public health order canceling Coachella Valley Music and Arts, Stagecoach Country Music festivals planned for April 2021. We look forward to when the events may return. https://t.co/YAIn8uTea9
— Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2021
The Stagecoach music festival, a country music event scheduled for April on the same site as Coachella, has also been cancelled, Dr Kaiser said.
He said in a public health order: “If Covid-19 were detected at these festivals, the scope and number of attendees and the nature of the venue would make it infeasible, if not impossible, to track those who may be placed at risk.”
Dr Kaiser added: “We look forward to when the events may return.”
Goldenvoice, which organises both Coachella and Stagecoach, has been contacted for comment.
The postponement is the third time Coachella has shifted due to the health crisis.
In March last year organisers pushed the festival, which was set to be headlined by Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine, from April to October, before those dates were also cancelled with the virus still raging across the US.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival takes place in the Indio desert near Palm Springs and attracted about 250,000 attendees in 2019, while Stagecoach draws more than 70,000 country music fans.
Glastonbury, which usually takes place in Somerset, was cancelled for a second year in a row earlier this month.
The live music sector faces an uncertain future due to the virus.