After a petition and a report of coronavirus in a neighboring community, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival organizers have reportedly decided to postpone the international music festival until the fall.
Coachella organizers confirmed Tuesday that the festival will be moved from its planned of the weekends of April 10 and April 19 to Oct. 9 and Oct. 16, due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. Rage Against the Machine, Frank Ocean and Travis Scott are still slated to headline. It’s not clear whether the lineup has changed. The GoldenVoice team which hosts Coachella and Stagecoach, a country music festival, made the announcement around 7 p.m. Tuesday. Stagecoach will move to Oct. 23, 24 and 25.
“At the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities, we must sadly confirm the rescheduling of Coachella and Stagecoach due to COVID-19 concerns,” a message on the team’s Twitter page reads. “While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health off our guests, staff and community very seriously.”
— Coachella (@coachella) March 10, 2020
On Sunday, Riverside County public health officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser announced there was a presumptive case of coronavirus in the county. The patient was treated at Eisenhower Medical Center, which is about 25 minutes away from the site of Coachella. There are now three cases reported in the Riverside area.
Atlanta artists, including 21 Savage and Summer Walker, are listed as some of this year’s performers. The festival has been around for more than 20 years. The festival typically attracts more than 250,000 people.
Last week, a Change.org petition began collecting signatures calling for the festival to take precautions in light of the COVID-19 outbreak in California.
COVID-19 outbreak hit California. Large personnel gathering event can be extremely dangerous especially when participants travel all around the world attending the event. The “Cancellation of Coachella 2020 music festival due to COVID-19 Outbreak” petition had collected more than 15,000 signatures as of Monday night.
“Large personnel gathering event can be extremely dangerous especially when participants travel all around the world attending the event,” wrote the petition organizer Stella Young. “Let's protect ourselves and California residents by do the right thing before it's too late.”
Two people have died from coronavirus in California, and there are reportedly more than 130 cases across the state.
Coachella is one of the many major festivals and events that have been postponed or canceled this over the next couple of months. On Friday, SXSW announced it would cancel its Austin, Texas, conferences and events that were to begin later this week due to the virus.
