Bad news for all the free-spirited boho babes and EDM bros looking to get lit at Coachella this year: it’s been announced that the 2020 edition of the music festival is officially cancelled.
With 2020's headliners including Rage Against The Machine, Frank Ocean, and Tavis Scott, the annual event, which takes place in Indio, California, was postponed from its usual April spot due to the coronavirus outbreak and rescheduled for October.
Now, with concerns surrounding a second wave of COVID-19 in the autumn growing, it’s off the cards completely, as the area’s public health official, Cameron Kaiser, announced he would not feel comfortable with allowing the festival to go ahead.
“I am concerned as indications grow that COVID-19 could worsen in the fall. Given the projected circumstances and potential, I would not be comfortable moving forward,” he said. “These decisions are not taken lightly with the knowledge that many people will be impacted. My first priority is the health of the community.” Each year, 250,000 people attend Coachella, which takes place across two weekends.
Coachella joins a growing list of cancelled music events, with Chicago’s Lollapalooza, Austin’s SXSW, and Miami’s Ultra Festival also hit by the pandemic. It’s now looking unlikely that any large-scale events will take place this year, with epidemiologist George Rutherford telling Rolling Stone they would not be safe until 90 per cent of the population has been immunised against the disease. In further great news, according to him, that may not happen until 2021.
Revisit the time one Dazed editor went to the festival alone here.