Coachella officially canceled for 2020 amid coronavirus pandemic as AEG CEO says large-scale live events aren’t ‘likely until sometime in 2021’
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, initially pushed from spring to fall, will not happen this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘It is clear now that live events with fans will not resume for many months and likely not until sometime in 2021,’ AEG CEO Dan Beckerman told employees in a memo, Billboard reported Tuesday.
The annual music festival was initially postponed from April until October as much of the United States shut down in an effort to quell the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest: The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, initially pushed from spring to fall, will not happen this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic
The festival traditionally spans two weekends with as many as 125,000 attendees daily, according to the outlet.
The company Goldenvoice, which is also involved in putting on the festival – as well as others such as Stage Coach and Splash Fest, are probing whether it would be better to put on a limited festival next April or a large scale one next October, according to the outlet.
Last year’s festival was headlined by Ariana Grande and Childish Gambino, while this year’s was tentatively set to feature Travis Scott, Rage Against the Machine and Frank Ocean.
Beckerman told staffers in the memo that it was expected that live events would need time to rebuild their audiences and sponsorships as result of the virus and its impact.
A look back: Last year’s festival was headlined by Ariana Grande and Childish Gambino, while this year’s was tentatively set to feature Travis Scott, Rage Against the Machine and Frank Ocean
Tough times: The news was made amid major layoffs and furloughs at the concert promoter AEG
‘When we are able to reopen, it will take time until we see our fans, partners and sponsors fully return,’ the executive said in a memo as the company made a series of drastic cutbacks in response to the freeze on their business. ‘Every employee worldwide will be impacted in one form or another.’
According to the magazine, 15 percent of the promoter and facility manager’s workers were laid off, with 100 more furloughed and the remainder having their salaries slashed between 20 and 50 percent.
The exec said that cumulative moves amounted to an ‘agonizing decision, but sadly, a necessary one.’
The publication reported that entertainment industry workers have bore a huge financial brunt in the wake of the shutdowns caused by the virus amid the concert cancellations, studio shutdowns and suspended productions,
According to Billboard, as many as 45,000 full-time employees have been furloughed or laid off since the shutdown commenced more than two months ago, with as many as 300,000—400,000 part timers and freelancers laid off.
As of Tuesday, the death total for COVID-19 was at 112,006 people in the U.S., with 1,979,928 total positive diagnoses, Johns Hopkins University reported. On a global level, 411,277 people have died amid 7,238,611 positive diagnoses worldwide.