Coachella may be delayed again as festivals give up on spring

Follow Us Get the newsletter The organizers of the Coachella music festival have discussed delaying the event again, including a possible shift from April to October, according to people familiar with the plans. It may seem obvious to most of us that gathering 125,000 people on a polo field for a three-day party is a bad idea in the middle of a pandemic that requires us to socially distance and avoid most human interaction. The mayor of Palm Springs said the city is not planning on any events in the spring. And yet, Coachella is still scheduled to take place in April. Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice has already moved Coachella twice, first from April 2020 to October 2020 and then again to April 2021. They have attempted to keep the lineup in tact, in part because it means the event is "postponed" and not "canceled," so they aren't going to refund all of the tickets. It's not clear how long events can keep postponing before they have to refund everyone. Coachella is the biggest moneymaker for Goldenvoice, and the unofficial start of summer festival season in the northern hemisphere. Postponing the event again defers millions of dollars in revenue for a company whose owner has already been firing staff. Goldenvoice is hardly alone in trying to figure out when live music will come back, and what it will look like. Hundreds of promoters, agents and live music professionals are trying to determine when it will be safe to stage a large-scale public event. Having spoken with many of these people in recent weeks, it's clear that nobody has any idea. Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, has stuck to a summer timeline. But that was before the latest global surge in cases, and that also assumed an efficient distribution of the vaccine. The company will update investors (and fans) on its outlook when it next reports earnings. There are optimists among us. A Spanish concert promoter commissioned a study to show that there was no spread at a covid-safe concert, which entailed rapid testing everyone and masks. The organizers of Glastonbury have thus far declined to cancel the annual U.K. music festival, which is scheduled for June. Dr. Anthony Fauci said fall seems like a good bet. But that is dependent on the vaccine. It makes zero sense to host concerts until we've achieved herd immunity, which will only happen when at least 70% of the population is vaccinated. "If everything goes right, this will occur sometime in the fall of 2021, so that by the time we get to the early to mid-fall, you can have people feeling safe performing onstage as well as people in the audience," he told the Association of Performing Arts Professionals. Considering the flawed rollout of the vaccine and widespread skepticism in society, a lot is riding on the clause "if everything goes right." 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You can read more about the R&B singer's fourth album in this Hunter Harris interview. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Screentime newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022