For North America’s most lucrative and influential music festival, COVID-19 ended with an update to the fine print. On February 15, news surfaced that this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival had changed the health and safety guidelines on its website: Attendees would no longer be required to wear masks, show proof of vaccination, or provide negative COVID-19 test results. The same day, the country-music festival Stagecoach announced its own policy change more conventionally, via social media. Both festivals are staged by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of live entertainment behemoth AEG,
Coachella’s traditional status as a bellwether for the U.S. music festival season means its decision could resonate far beyond the fields of Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Ethicists and health experts contacted by Pitchfork raised concerns that although the Omicron wave does appear to be ebbing, Coachella’s elimination of all COVID-19 precautions seems to pose unnecessary health risks.
Goldenvoice hasn’t responded to multiple requests from Pitchfork for further information.
Not imposing any coronavirus safety requirements is “in denial of everything we’ve been through the last two years,” says Richard Carpione, a public health expert and public policy professor at the University of California, Riverside. “It’s almost acting like the pandemic never happened and the virus will magically go away come April.” (Coachella is scheduled for the weekends of April 15 to April 17 and April 22 to April 24.)
Both Coachella and Stagecoach, which takes place the following weekend, were canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. With headliners including Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Kanye West (now legally known as Ye), Coachella is sold out this year, with a capacity of 125,000 concertgoers a day and ticket prices starting at $449. Carpione says the festival could have at least required vaccine verification or proof of negative tests, the types of protocols—along with a mask mandate for the unvaccinated—that big fests such as Lollapalooza implemented during last year’s Delta wave, with no apparent super-spreader results. “Why do this now?”
Coachella’s move coincided with the end of California’s statewide mask mandate in most indoor spaces and loosening of requirements for large events. But the state’s public health department still “strongly” recommends verification of fully vaccinated status or negative COVID test results for all people attending outdoor events of 10,000 or more. A spokesperson for the public health department in Riverside County, where Coachella occurs, told the local Press Enterprise, “Large events with attendees from all over the world pose a greater risk and we strongly recommend those who take part should be vaccinated and wear a mask.” (The spokesperson declined to elaborate to Pitchfork.) To be fair, the Coachella and Stagecoach websites both note that “face coverings are recommended to protect against desert dust.”
Even as California and other states loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, Coachella’s move goes further than plans for most other marquee events. The Oscars, held indoors, will reportedly require vaccines and negative tests for most attendees. Rules around masking, vaccination, and negative test results are also set to remain in place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. SXSW, the first major live music event to cancel in 2020, retains a litany of COVID-19 rules. As for outdoor music festivals, Treefort in Boise, Idaho and Ultra in Miami still have vaccine or negative-test requirements, for now. But at least one festival, Milwaukee’s Summerfest, has dropped its COVID restrictions in the wake of the Coachella news.
Two years into the pandemic, it’s anyone’s guess what COVID-19 case levels will look like in April. The Coachella Valley’s nine cities saw a spike of 15,390 new COVID-19 cases—and 10 new deaths—in the week ending February 14, the Desert Sun has reported. The websites for Coachella and Stagecoach each state that “the event shall be presented in accordance with applicable public health conditions as of the date of the event and which may change at any time.”
There’s already potential cause for concern. New research this week suggests that the BA.2 virus, a subvariant of Omicron, may be more severe and infectious than its predecessor. Hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise again in Denmark, the first country to lift all remaining restrictions at the beginning of February, and where BA.2 has become the dominant coronavirus strain. “This is the sort of scenario, if it develops and becomes as widespread as Omicron B.1, that would ethically require altering plans for that festival,” says Leonard Fleck, a professor with the Center for Bioethics and Social Justice at Michigan State University. “The emerging evidence from Denmark is the worrisome part.”
Beyond the health of artists, attendees, staff, local employees, and all of their various home communities, a bigger issue may be the precedent that Coachella’s rule change sets for the rest of the country. “I worry that publicizing an event like this will create some political pressure to drop mask requirements while flying and being in the airport,” Fleck says. “I believe there is a huge difference, public health-wise and ethics-wise, between Coachella and flying, but I can see that difference being ignored by Fox News folks and others of that persuasion.”
So far, artists booked for Coachella have been quiet about the policy change. Fans commenting on Stagecoach’s Instagram post were more supportive. But commenters on the Coachella Subreddit have expressed disappointment, with many saying they still planned to mask up due to the festival’s dust. Immunocompromised people, who compose at least 3 percent of the U.S. adult population, have voiced their frustration about Coachella’s rule change to the Los Angeles Times.
Vaccine verification and testing can also be expensive, with Fortune 500 companies reportedly spending up to $865,000 on such measures for large gatherings. Security, gate operations, and fencing all also have costs, and getting people into the festival grounds quickly has value of its own. At root, Coachella’s decision seems to be about money, says Daniel Sokol, a medical ethicist and clinical negligence lawyer who writes for the British Medical Journal. The festival website contains a “COVID-19 warning” that reads, “COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death.” “This clause, no doubt drafted by lawyers, is designed to protect Coachella from any legal claims brought by COVID victims or, in the event of their death, their estate,” Sokol says. “It is difficult to reconcile that warning with the decision to allow people to attend without any COVID-related restrictions. While Coachella’s decision may be commercially understandable, it is hardly a responsible one. In my opinion, people’s health and safety should come before profit.”
