Coachella postponed

Celina Tebor / Associate Editor / The USD Vista

Organizers of Coachella and Stagecoach announced Tuesday afternoon that they have postponed the music festivals in response to the rise of global coronavirus cases. 

Other music festivals such as Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida and South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas have already been canceled amid the virus concerns.

Coachella was originally scheduled for the weekends of April 10-12 and April 17-19. It will be rescheduled to the weekends of October 9-11 and 16-18. Likewise, Stagecoach will be now be held during the weekend of October 23-25 rather than its original April  24-26 weekend. 

There are 167 cases of the coronavirus in California and two deaths at the time of publication, according to The New York Times. Almost 20,000 people have signed a change.org petition asking for Coachella’s cancellation due to COVID-19.

Junior Nicholas Roferos bought his Coachella ticket back in November and had already secured housing for the first week of the music festival. He spent $200 personally for an Airbnb that would have hosted 13 people in total.

He was upset that the music festival would be postponed, but understands why the decision was made. 

“Initially, I was upset because it’s something I’ve been looking forward to,” Roferos said. “Safety wise, it makes the most sense to me so it makes sense why they’re doing that.”

Ultimately, he believes Coachella made the right decision in postponing the music festival.

“I think it was wise for them to do, especially considering a gathering of 100,000 people in close proximity is just not wise to have, especially with a virus going around,” Roferos said. “I think they made the right decision. I think it will just upset a lot of people.”

Ultra Music Festival in Miami will not offer any refunds after its cancellation amid coronavirus concerns, but Roferos hopes Coachella will take a different route, though he plans to attend Coachella during its postponed date. 

“I think they should give people a lot of options for a full refund because a lot of artists won’t be able to attend the festival (in October), so they’re not giving what was promised,” Roferos said.