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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