Coachella April 2021 dates canceled amid pandemic uncertainty
This is the second year in a row that the popular multi-weekend music festival was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic
As COVID-19 continues to affect the nation, it has been announced that California’s annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will not be held in April.
The announcement came via a Twitter post Friday from Riverside County’s public health officer, Dr. Cameron Kaiser.
Kaiser signed a public health order that not only cancelled Coachella, but also the Stagecoach Country Music Festival as well. Both festivals take place in the southern Californian city Indio, and each was set to take place in April. Coachella had been planned for April 9-11 and 16-18. Stagecoach was to take place the following week, April 23-25, according to Billboard.
This is the second year in a row that the popular multi-weekend music festival was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. As reported by NPR, Coachella 2020 was originally slated for April with Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine scheduled as headliners. After the pandemic led to lockdowns in the U.S. last March, Coachella was postponed to October 2020. The event was later scrapped altogether.
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Festival promoter Goldenvoice announced that tickets to the 2020 Coachella and Stagecoach festivals would be honored for the April 2021 festivals.
Status of the ticket holders for the now cancelled 2021 festival is uncertain and a new date has not been determined at this time.
The COVID-19 pandemic shook the live music industry to its knees in 2020. Coachella was just one of several festivals and extensive artist tours that were canceled that year. Vulture reports that coronavirus caused the cancellation of Made In America Festival, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and the Essence Festival, just to name a few.
Individual acts like Alicia Keys, The Weeknd and Khalid also had to postpone their tours last year for new 2021 dates. Numerous musicians, such as John Legend, Alice Smith, Chaka Khan and Anthony Hamilton, held online performances to promote social distancing.
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Some 2020 festivals were able to go on in a digital format, including Brooklyn’s Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, in which several artists, including its headliner, Common, participated by streaming pre-recorded performances last August. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that The 2020 Roots Picnic was also forced to be canceled, but also pivoted to a “virtual experience” last June, featuring acts like Musiq Soulchild, H.E.R. and Roddy Rich.
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