If your idea of a return to normal involves sweating in the desert while wearing a flower crown, drinking overpriced alcohol, and watching Carly Rae Jepsen and Thom Yorke perform on the same day, well, you’ll likely have to wait till 2022 for that experience. Sources told Variety that Coachella is not planning to return until April 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The California festival canceled its planned April 2021 return in January, but reports at the time said it could set up for an October 2021 event. Pushing to April 2022 will mark three years since the last Coachella, in April 2019; as COVID-19 spread in March 2020, the festival announced its first postponement, initially eyeing October 2020. The festival had never announced a 2021 lineup, although reports previously said it was asking some artists on the 2020 lineup to perform in 2021.
While some expect a potential for concerts by mid- to late 2021, especially outdoors, Coachella will likely be one of the last music events to return post-pandemic, with a capacity of around 125,000 each day. Glastonbury, a U.K. counterpart to the festival with a capacity over 200,000, already canceled its 2021 iteration. (Not only do both log six-figure attendances, many guests travel to the festivals as well.) But sources did tell Variety other festivals are still looking to return in 2021. As one told the magazine, “There’s a big difference between having two weekend of Coachella in California and throwing a country festival in Florida.â€