In case you’ve been cutting off your jeans and looking at ticket prices to Indio, banking on Coachella and Stagecoach happening as regularly scheduled this spring, we’ve got some bad news. According to Billboard, the existing April dates for both music festivals have been officially canceled, per a release from Dr. Cameron Kaiser, the public-health officer for California’s Riverside County “due to the pandemic.†Said Kaiser in a tweet, “We look forward to when the events may return.â€
In case you were surprised there was even a chance either festival was still scheduled for April, given the state of the nation’s ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, well, it seems like the cancellation was an official health-department edict, rather than an indication that either fest, put on by Goldenvoice, was likely to happen three months from now. While both Coachella and its country counterpoint Stagecoach were rescheduled to return in April 2021 as of last June, officials floated this autumn as a likelier timeframe for the return of these, and other large music festivals, as recently as this month.
“We’re hoping that those events will be rescheduled to the fall of this year,†Palm Springs mayor Christy Holstege told Channel Q KQPS 103.1 on January 13. Neither the Coachella nor Stagecoach websites currently have any updated information about their projected return dates.