It’s official: Coachella rescheduled for October
April’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival – traditionally the unofficial start to the festival season in the northern hemisphere – is being pushed back to October, organisers have announced, becoming the biggest music-biz casualty of the coronavirus to date.
Confirming a story first broken by Billboard on Monday 9 March (which reported Goldenvoice was working to reschedule the event), at around 11pm GMT last night the promoter released a statement stating Coachella will now take place on 9–11 and 16–18 October 2020, while country music festival Stagecoach is pushed back to 23–25 October 2020.
Coachella 2020, headlined by Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and a reunited Rage Against the Machine, was original set for 10–12 April (weekend one) and 17–19 April (weekend two) at its traditional home of the Empire Polo Club (125,000-cap.) in Indio, Riverside County, California.
Yesterday (10 March), Riverside County voted to declare a public health emergency in response to the novel coronavirus, Covid-19. At the time of writing, there have been at least 14 cases of the virus recorded in California.
“We take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously”
“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,” reads Goldenvoice’s statement.
“While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”
Coachella and Stagecoach are the third and fourth major US festival postponements due to concerns over the virus, which has now infected around 120,000 people worldwide, following Ultra Miami and Austin’s South by Southwest.
In Europe, where Covid-19 is more widespread, festival promoters are still biding their time – though widespread bans on large public gatherings across the continent appear to signal further cancellations, and many tours have been called off.
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Coachella 2020 line-up revealed
The line-up for the 2020 edition of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been unveiled, with Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean topping the bill.
The AEG/Goldenvoice-promoted mega festival, which takes place across two consecutive weekends in April, will also see performances from Lana Del Rey, Calvin Harris, Flume, Thom Yorke, Run the Jewels, Megan Thee Stallion and Lil Uzi Vert, with the same acts performing at both weekend one (10–12 April) and weekend two (17–19 April) of the festival.
The 125,000-capacity event, which is widely regarded as marking the beginning of the international festival season, will once again take place at its home of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
The line-up for Coachella 2020 has been unveiled, with Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean topping the bill
Coachella 2019 saw headline performances from Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino and Tame Impala. Last year’s festival also saw the introduction of a new, AR-enabled stage.
Tickets for weekend one of the event, which went on advance sale in June, are now sold out. Presale for the second weekend starts on 6 January at 12 p.m. PT. Fans can register for the presale here.
Festival travel platform Festicket teamed up with Coachella in July to become the exclusive UK and Europe ticketing partner for the 2020 event.
See the full line-up below:
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Coachella partners up with Festicket
Festival travel platform Festicket has teamed up with Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to become the Californian festival’s exclusive UK and Europe ticketing partner.
Festicket will provide extra local booking services, support across eight languages and additional currency options, as well as promotion a range of ticket packages.
Tickets for the 2020 edition of Coachella, went on advance sale on Friday 14 June, with Festicket packages selling so far to fans in 49 different countries worldwide.
Festicket chief executive co-founder and chief executive, Zack Sabban, says it is “amazing” to extend the platform’s relationship with Coachella and promoter Goldenvoice. Sabban founded Festicket in 2012, when planning a trip to the Californian festival.
“We created Festicket to help people plan their trips to destination festivals exactly like Coachella,” comments Sabban.
“We created Festicket to help people plan their trips to destination festivals exactly like Coachella”
“Our work so far with Coachella has had an amazing response from our international community of festival fans. Now we’ll be focusing on making the experience the best it can be for every fan – from discovery, to booking, to accommodation, to the event itself.”
Festicket has raised overUS$30 million in funds, most recently receiving $4.6m from creative industries investment specialist, Edge.
Coachella 2019, which took place at the Empire Polo Club in southern California, saw headline performance from Childish Gambino, Tame Impala and Ariana Grande.
The 2020 edition will take place across two consecutive weekends from 10 to 12 and 17 to 19 April.
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