Coachella, the music festival that attracts thousands of tanned bandanna-wearers to southern California each spring, has been postponed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Festival organisers say Coachella will now take place over two weekends in autumn, Oct. 9-11 and Oct. 16-18.
Stagecoach, a country music festival held at the same venue in Indio, California, was also rescheduled and will now be taking place Oct. 23-25.
Goldenvoice, the company that produces the events, said it changed the dates for the festivals “at the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities.”
“While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff and community very seriously,” the company said in a statement.
Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean were slated to headline the original dates for Coachella, scheduled to be spread over two weekends, April 10-12 and April 17-19.
Carrie Underwood, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lil Nas X and Eric Church were originally scheduled to headline Stagecoach over the weekend of April 26-28.
It’s unclear if the same performers will appear at the new festival dates in October. HuffPost has reached out to festival organisers for comment.
Officials announced three new cases of coronavirus in the Coachella Valley on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Riverside County to six.
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach are the latest major event to have its plans changed due to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
On Friday, the media festival South by Southwest was cancelled. It was scheduled to kick off on March 13. Event organisers across the U.S. have been canceling conferences, festivals and other occasions out of concern for public health.
Testing efforts across the U.S. have been sluggish and the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has surpassed 600, reported The Associated Press.
Sarah Ruiz-Grossman and Carla Russo contributed reporting.