Story by: Nick Lamoureux
Click to be redirected to Coachella website
Coachella Music Festival has been POSTPONED until October multiple sources confirm to Moon Landing. This is a much better outcome for the festival and it’s patrons as it was initially thought to be cancelled entirely.
As I feared in my report on Moon Landing this past Saturday, the news comes to us today via multiple sources and are now just waiting on an official word from Riverside County Health Officials and Goldenvoice. This news comes just one day after the county declared that Coachella Valley was now in a public health emergency after the first four locally confirmed cases of COVID-19, the new strain of Coronavirus.
The new dates as of right now of weekend one and two are schedule to take place the weekends of October 9th and 16th. There are a ton of moving parts when a festival of this caliber needs to change things up last minute including artists, vendors, security, permits and agencies etc. For these reasons, there is still a chance that the festival is still canceled altogether though Goldenvoice is doing all in its power to just move dates.
COVID-19, has struck fear through health organizations of several cities and has now impacted multiple major music festivals and events across the nation and possibly the world.
Just yesterday, one of the largest tennis tournaments in the world, the BNP Paribas Open shut down and announced that it will not be held. This set a precedent for other major events in the area such as Coachella and Stagecoach, as they are located in the same county and the decisions to end events are made by the same group of health officials.
Coachella joins the likes of Miami’s Ultra and Austin’s South By Southwest music festivals as the first to be cancelled or postponed among the Coronavirus scares. Ultra’s cancellation has started a ripple effect of major festivals shutting their doors on this year’s events from hundreds of thousands of disappointed fans.
Since its first festival in 1999, Coachella has only been cancelled or postponed in one other instance, during the following year in 2000. The cancellation then, was caused by a significant decrease in ticket sales after a spree of violence took place at Woodstock just a few months prior.
With Coachella now moving its dates until October, this raises further questions about the future of music festivals this year including EDC, Beyond Wonderland, Electric Forest and more. Many believe that Coachella will set the stage for even more major festivals to be cancelled or postponed with the news from the World Health Organization yesterday stating that there is “false hope” that the virus will go dormant in the summertime.
It is still to be seen whether or not other major venues such as sporting events or theme parks will keep their doors open and follow the lead of the BNP Paribas. As reported by CNN, organizations such as the NCPA have already raised questions to the NCAA about hosting events like March Madness with no fans. Other sporting leagues such as the NBA, MLB, MLS and NHL have shut their locker rooms out to reporters as of today.
As of right now, there is no information about ticket refunds and the best way to stay informed will be to look out for official statements from Coachella’s social media pages.
We will be posting updates on our Twitter page as they come in, so continue to follow Moon Landing for the latest news about your favorite festivals.
