UPDATE 3/9/20 8:55 p.m. PST: Multiple sources are stating Coachella will be rescheduled in October. According to Variety, promoter Goldenvoice is informing agents and determining who is available on consecutive weekends in October—starting with Oct. 9. Organizers have yet to release a statement.
First it was Miami’s EDM fest Ultra cancelling over coronavirus concerns. Now that the annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX has followed suit—shutting the event down for the first time in its thirty-four-year history—music industry folks and fans alike are wondering whether Coachella is the next big event to be scrapped over the virus.
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With a growing number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the state (which as of now is sixty-nine, including one death), there’s a strong chance that California-based festivals set for the spring and summer will also pull the plug. Coachella 2020 is scheduled for the second and third weekend of April 2020, just over a month away.
“I wouldn’t doubt over the next twenty days if we see a festival a day cancelled,” Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman told Billboard. “There’s no one managing it at the federal level, which means this is going to be decided by local officials who wield a ton of power.”
Coachella 2020 happening or not could come down to local residents and officials making enough noise about public safety that the show’s promoters, AEG and Goldenvoice, are pressured into calling it off. According to Lyman, that would be a game-changer: “If Coachella gets cancelled, there’s really no events that are probably safe.”
