Two popular California music festivals have been canceled again due to the coronavirus pandemic, local health officials announced Friday.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach country music festival were scheduled to take place in April, but have been canceled, Riverside County public health officials said.
The festivals take place annually at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located approximately 2.5 hours from Los Angeles, and are known to attract crowds of people.
“This order is intended to reduce the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19,” the county health department said in a statement tweeted by public health director Cameron Kaiser.
Recent cancellations mark the third time festivals have been withdrawn since the pandemic began.
Due to the pandemic, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, a public health officer, today (January 29) signed a public health order canceling the Coachella Valley music and arts festivals, Stagecoach Country Music scheduled for April 2021. We look forward to when the events return. https://t.co/YAIn8uTea9
– Dr. Cameron Kaiser (@RivCoDoc) January 29, 2021
Coachella and Stagecoach were originally postponed from the spring of 2020 to the fall of 2020. The two festivals retired in April 2021, before being canceled on Friday.
The Riverside County Public Health Department declared the order that the two festivals “of international scope” attract “hundreds of thousands of attendees.” Due to the estimated number of people attending the two events, the tracking of COVID-19 case contracts would be “unfeasible, if not impossible.”
Kaiser did not indicate when events will be rescheduled.
As of Jan. 29, Riverside County has had a total of 271,910 cases of COVID-19, with 1,128 people currently hospitalized, according to the county health department.