January typically means Coachella lineup announcement time. But this year, unsurprisingly, we haven’t really heard anything about Coachella and its country sibling Stagecoach.
It should come as no surprise then that Riverside County has officially canceled both of the festivals. On Friday, public health officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser issued a statement that “the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival currently scheduled for April 2021 are hereby canceled.” Festival promoter Goldenvoice has yet publicly comment on the cancellation, nor has it mentioned anything about new dates.
Due to the pandemic, Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser today (Jan. 29) signed a public health order canceling Coachella Valley Music and Arts, Stagecoach Country Music festivals planned for April 2021. We look forward to when the events may return. https://t.co/YAIn8uTea9
— Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2021
The language in the order is nearly identical to a similar one issued surrounding last year’s fest—so we imagine the reference to “concerns of a fall resurgence” is just a holdover from that. And whereas last year’s order specified that the fests were canceled “for the calendar year 2020,” this one just seems to narrow in on that April 2021 date.
In March of 2020—just a day before the state’s ban on large events—Goldenvoice announced that it was postponing Coachella and Stagecoach until October. By June, the fests were flat-out canceled. At the time, Goldenvoice that “as of now” Coachella would return April 9–11 and 16–18, 2021, and Stagecoach from April 23–25, 2021; all 2020 ticketholders were given the ability to request a refund or roll over their tickets to next year. But since then? There’d been nothing until now—certainly not about a lineup, which last year was supposed to include Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and a reunited Rage Against the Machine, and nothing even about the feasibility of a 2021 date.