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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Southern California have been postponed indefinitely on account of threats of COVID-19. The Public Health Officer of Riverside County, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, ordered the indefinite postponement of both music festivals to forestall the spread of the pandemic in the community and beyond.
The two largest musical festivals in Southern California are usually attended by thousands of people from all over the world, and they generate between $75 and $100 million within the two weeks that the celebrations hold. In fact, industry experts say Coachella is the most profitable music festival in the United States.
Kaiser said that allowing hundreds of thousands of people to congregate over a two-week period will increase transmission rates for COVID-19 and that tracking infected people will be nearly impossible since attendees will take the disease back to their various states and countries.
“This order is intended to reduce the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19, thereby slowing the spread of COVID-19 in communities worldwide,” he said. “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.”
Both Coachella and Stagecoach were scheduled to hold last year in April, but they were postponed to October because of the high incidence of coronavirus transmission and deaths in the United States. The festivals were then postponed from October 2020 to April 2021, but it is obvious this will not be the case again, LA Times reports.
The celebrations would have held at Indio’s Empire Polo Club. Some of the artists shortlisted for the celebrations include Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Rage Against the Machine among others. After the shows were canceled twice last year, ticket manager Goldenvoice announced that people who had bought their tickets would be refunded and that they could be slated for admission when the celebrations held again.
Despite the cancellation for Coachella and Stagecoach, other music festivals across the US are still on schedule to hold. Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago is scheduled to hold in September, and Bonnaroo music celebration is also fixed to hold in September in Tennessee. Even the Mad Cool festival in Spain is still on track among others in Europe.
Festival promoter Goldenvoice and the festival organizers did not return calls for additional information.
Source: cnn.com
