The Coachella festival, one of the most anticipated dates on the music calendar that was scheduled to take place next month, has reportedly been postponed to October in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
The news was first reported by journalist Yashar Ali. DailyMail.com has reached out to the organizers of the music festival for comment.
The report comes as authorities in the Coachella Valley region confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus on Monday.
The cases were confirmed by the Riverside County Department of Public Health.
Dr. Cameron Kaiser, county public health officer, said the three infections were either the result of travel into areas where COVID-19 has been confirmed or contact with a known case.
Two of the individuals have been isolated at home, Kaiser said, while the third is being cared for at a Coachella Valley hospital.
Beyonce performs at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 21, 2018. It is being reported that this year’s festival scheduled for next month is being postponed until October
Journalist Yashar Ali is reporting that sources ‘familiar with the arrangments’ say that the festival, which was scheduled for April, will be pushed back by six months
There were growing calls for the festival to be shut down, particularly after the coronavirus outbreak led to the cancellation of SXSW in Texas and Ultra electronic music festival in Miami.
An online petition to shutter Coachella this year quickly garnered more than 16,000 signatures.
‘As a highly inclusive community, we are responsible to protect each and every community member, which include the ones who are elderly, fragile, or the ones who suffers from chronic diseases, cancer, immune system diseases and other form of disabilities,’ wrote Stella Young, who started the petition.
‘The lives of these people should not be downplayed and we shouldn’t risk their lives since they have a higher chance catching COVID-19 and develop critical situations that need to be hospitalized,’ Young wrote.
This year Rage Against The Machine, Frank Ocean and Travis Scott are set to headline. The same lineup is expected to perform at the rescheduled Coachella shows this fall
A petition to shutter Coachella this year quickly garnered more than 5,500 signatures
Coachella is a hugely popular festival with social media influencers, who preen in selfies during the two-weekend event.
Each spring hundreds of thousands of festival-goers descend on the grounds of Indio over two three-day weekends.
This year Rage Against The Machine, Frank Ocean and Travis Scott are set to headline.
If the reports of a postponement are accurate, this would be the second major event in the region that has been either postponed or canceled due to the emerging pandemic.
Professional tennis organizers announced the postponement of the BNP Paribas Open in Southern California.
The announcement has jolted the Coachella Valley’s economy during peak tourist season in the desert.
The two-week tournament’s economic impact to the area topped $400million in the most recent survey done in 2017.
It was set to run Monday through March 22.
Calls to cancel or postpone Coachella grew after Austin, Texas, announced that it was canceling large-scale gatherings, including the popular South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. From left: Queen Latifah, Sophia Bush, Michelle Obama, and Missy Elliott at SXSW in 2016
Another major event in the Coachella Valley, the BNP Paribas Open, was canceled after local authorities confirmed three new cases of coronavirus on Monday. The above image shows Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, on Sunday
The city of Miami also ordered the Ultra Music Festival be canceled this year due to the coronavirus outbreak
Based on the survey it has attracted upwards of 450,000 people, including 124,000 from outside the region.
‘It’s one of our biggest events of the year,’ Scott White, president and CEO of the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau, said by phone Monday.
‘This is a tough one to get through. I think a lot of people were very surprised by the postponement.’
White said the bureau would begin surveying hoteliers and area attractions Tuesday to find out the impact of not holding the tournament at this time after a case of coronavirus was confirmed in the Coachella Valley.
He said hotels and restaurants are using enhanced cleaning methods to protect guests and workers.
The Riverside County Public Health Department declared a public health emergency for the desert cities 110 miles east of Los Angeles, including Indian Wells where the ATP and WTA tours were to play the combined event that offers prize money of over $17million.
Riverside County health officials on Monday announced three new novel coronavirus cases in the Coachella Valley, bringing the area total to six.
The US death toll from the coronavirus has climbed to 27, with most of the victims in Washington state, while the number of infections swelled to over 680 spread across more than half the states.
On Friday, city officials in Austin, Texas issued a state of emergency that effectively cancelled another major festival, South by Southwest, also known as SXSW, which had been set to take place between March 13 and March 22.
It is just the latest cancellation of a major festival or conference due to coronavirus fears, following the cancellation of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, as well as Facebook F8 and Adobe Summit.
All told, the economic cost of tech events cancelled due to coronavirus has surpassed $1 billion, according to an estimate from ReCode.
An economic impact report found that last year’s festival, attended by more than 400,000, contributed $355.9million to the local economy, making the cancellation a devastating blow to Austin businesses.
The SXSW announcement comes on the heels of Miami authorities saying they were cancelling the Florida beachfront city’s annual Ultra electronic dance festival — which draws in more than 160,000 revelers – over coronavirus threats.
The March 20 to 22 event was to feature sets from major DJs including Gesaffelstein and Sofi Tukker.
Ultra has also canceled its edition of the festival in Abu Dhabi, which was scheduled for March 5-6.
The epidemic poses a particular challenge for Miami, which relies on tourism especially in March and April, when thousands of young people fly south for spring break.