Report: Coachella Has Been Canceled
Another one seemingly bites the dust. Billboard reports that Goldenvoice, the production company behind Coachella, has canceled the event, which was already postponed from April 2020 to October 2020.
According to Billboard, Goldenvoice is “still trying to determine whether the two-weekend, 125,000-person-per-day festival will make a limited-capacity return in April 2021 or a larger, higher capacity comeback in October 2021. About 40% of ticket buyers have requested refunds for this year’s festival and AEG [Goldenvoice’s parent company] think they could probably pull off the festival in April at 60% capacity, but are holding off on making a final rescheduling decision until there is more clarity on the pandemic’s overall trajectory.”
In addition to this comes news that AEG has laid off 15% of its workforce, as well as furloughing over 100 employees in different divisions of the company and instituting 20–50% pay cuts.
“Every employee worldwide will be impacted in one form or another,” wrote AEG chief executive Dan Beckerman in a staff memo to employees on Monday. “It is an agonizing decision, but sadly, a necessary one.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the National Independent Venue Association reported that 90% of small venues risk shutting down permanently if the lockdown lasts six months or longer and there’s no federal support provided.
The National Independent Venue Association has launched the Save Our Stages campaign in hopes of getting federal aid from the government. Learn more and show your support here.
