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Coachella has officially been postponed to October due to COVID-19 fears

The mega festival will now take place over two weekends in October.

Coachella Fireworks

Image: Christopher Polk / Getty Images

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The organisers of Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and its sister event Stagecoach Music Festival have postponed the events in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Coachella was originally slated to occur between 10 and 19 April in Indio, California, and set to be headlined by Rage Against The Machine, Thom Yorke and Travis Scott. And  Stagecoach – headlined this year by Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Eric Church – was set for 24 to 26 April. In a tweet, festival promoter Goldenvoice has confirmed both events will be rescheduled to October “at the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities”. Coachella will now take place on 9 to 11 and 16 to 18 October, and Stagecoach will take place the weekend after, from 23 to 25 October.

Read the full tweet here:

The dates come on the back of multiple reports, including those on Variety, Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter, that Goldenvoice has been in talks with artist agents and managers to shift the festival to the weekends of 9 and 16 October in order to avoid cancelling it altogether.

On Monday (9 March) a local health emergency was declared in California’s Riverside County – where both events take place – following confirmation of a COVID-19 case in the county, according to NME.

This is the latest music event to be impacted by the COVID-19 virus. Over the weekend, it was announced that SXSW 2020, set to take place from 13 to 22 March across multiple locations in Austin, Texas, had been cancelled “by order of the City Of Austin”. It’s the first time in its 34-year history that SXSW will not take place as planned.

In response to the SXSW news, NME has announced that it will support bands that had been scheduled to play at the festival by coordinating a “recorded showcase” in London.

Elsewhere, Musikmesse, the largest music instruments trade fair in Europe has also been pushed back to a later, unspecified date. Knotfest Japan, Slipknot’s metal festival that was set to take place in Chiba, has also been cancelled. And Pearl Jam announced today that they will be postponing the first leg of their Gigaton tour to an unspecified date.

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