The 2020 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is likely to be postponed in light of ongoing concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
While no official announcement has been made, multiple outlets have reported that the music festival is in talks to push the dates until October. A source also confirms to E! News that Coachella has been postponed until October.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the city of Indio, Calif. where Coachella takes place, tells NBC News in a statement in part, "Goldenvoice has reached out to the City in the process of evaluating their options for the upcoming music festivals. Moving the festivals to October is one of those options, and the city would be supportive of that, however, the situation is fluid."
More than 125,000 people were expected to attend the world-famous music festival, which is scheduled across six days on the weekends of April 10 and 17. This year's lineup featured upwards of 150 musical acts, including headliners Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine in addition to Lana Del Rey, Big Sean and Calvin Harris.
On March 8, a local public health emergency was declared in Riverside County, the Southern California region where Coachella Valley and Indio is located. According to NBC Palm Springs, health officials confirmed the next day that three new cases of the COVID-19 infections had surfaced in Coachella Valley.
"There is currently no need to panic about the risk in Palm Springs or the Coachella Valley," Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Christy Holstege wrote in a statement at the time. "So many local businesses, workers, and our main tourism economy depend on making most of their money for the year in season, especially in April. We should proactively plan and focus on public safety but we shouldn't jump to rash conclusions not based on science and shut down thousands of jobs that people depend on and millions of dollars in our economy."
Coachella's postponement comes after similarly star-studded events like SXSW in Austin, Tex. and Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Fla. suffered the same fate.
The World Health Organization has reported more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus in 100 countries. See how the reported pandemic has impacted pop culture events worldwide since its emergence in late 2019.