Coachella is postponed due to Coronavirus oubreak

Coachella won’t be happening next month.

As the Coronavirus spreads across the globe and beats-up the stock markets, Coachella has been postponed to avoid the worst of the health crisis.

Coachella and its sister festival Stagecoach have been in limbo over recent days, and with SXSW getting shut down for the year, the choices had considerably narrowed: cancel or move the dates. Organisers Goldenvoice chose the latter.

This morning, the AEG-owned concerts company announced new dates for Coachella (Oct. 9-11 and Oct. 16-18, 2020), and for the country-leaning Stagecoach (Oct. 23-25).

“At the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities, we must sadly confirm the rescheduling of Coachella and Stagecoach due to COVID-19 concerns,” reads a company statement. “While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”

Flume

A lone line of Australian acts were booked and ready to make the trip to Indio, including Flume, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sampa The Great, The Chats, Skegss, Hayden James and Amyl & The Sniffers. Their reps will now scramble to change their flights and accommodation to October.

An economic impact report published in 2016 by the Indio Chamber of Commerce found that Coachella and Stagecoach generated more than A$1 billion in combined economic activity combined, with more than half of that spent in the Coachella Valley.

Like SXSW, which was canceled by the city of Austin, Texas over Coronavirus concerns, Coachella was the subject of a petition which gathered the names of tens of thousands of concert-goers who wanted the show to not go on.

All the major events on the northern summer calendar are now under a question mark.

Australia’s touring market isn’t immune. On Tuesday, Miley Cyrus announced she would not make the flight to Australia for this weekend’s bushfire benefit concert in Melbourne, a decision which caused the entire event to fold.

Lil Nas X, The Veronicas and DJ Seb Fontaine were booked to perform at the The World Tour Bushfire Relief concert, a partnership between Apollo World Touring, TEG Dainty, Westbrook Inc., and World Tour global sponsor AgBioEn.

Live Performance Australia insists its “business as usual” for the country’s live entertainment space, though the peak association is “keeping a very careful watch on what is a rapidly evolving situation,” says its CEO Evelyn Richardson.

With the government pledging a multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus package as part of its response to the impact of the disease, Richardson has written to the Minister for the Arts, Paul Fletcher calling for funds to be set aside for the live industry, should the situation worsen.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.