By Halie Holland

According to multiple sources, organizers of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival are in talks to postpone the festival amid the growing coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. If you didn’t know, Coachella is one of the biggest annual music festivals in the U.S, specifically in California. It is mainly well known for its line-up and long list of A list attendees. Coachella and its sister festival Stagecoach together bring in some $1.4 billion in profits each year, and an estimated 250,000 people attend the former each year.

California has been one of the U.S. states hit hardest by the global coronavirus outbreak, reporting over 110 confirmed cases and at least one death as of Monday evening. On Sunday, Riverside County, which is located outside of Los Angeles closer into the Southern California desert declared a public health emergency after it announced that a patient was being treated for coronavirus at a local hospital. On Monday night, Riverside announced three new cases of the virus, henceforth bringing the total number of cases of COVID-19 in the county to six.

On Tuesday, March 11th, via Twitter, Coachella officials released a statement revealing that the festival will indeed be postponed. They said, “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, 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.” The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will now take place on October 9-11 and October 16-18, 2020.

Some of the headling artists have commented on whether or not they can perform on the new dates. Popular Norwegian DJ Matoma said, “Coachella = October I’ve dreamed of coming back for 4 years now…we can wait 6 more months!” 88 Rising announced that they will also on board with attending the rescheduled dates. The bigger name headliners such as Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Lana Del Rey have yet to comment. 

Who will I see there?? 

So what does this mean for ticket and pass holders? Luckily nothing too detrimental. Some of the lineup musicians are sticking around for the October dates, but unfortunately, some are not. Everyone who purchased tickets for the April dates is going to be honored for the rescheduled dates. People who did buy tickets but can’t attend the October reschedule will be eligible for a refund starting Friday, March 13th. 

Until then we can only dream about boho festival outfits Instagram pictures flooding our feed, the iconic Ferris wheel, and stunning art installations.