The organizers of Stagecoach and Coachella, two major outdoor music festivals based in California, said Tuesday that they will have no coronavirus protocols in place at their upcoming gatherings, marking another milestone in a potential return to normalcy as virus case counts fall.
“As we prepare to spend an incredible weekend in the desert together we are announcing that there will be no vaccination, testing or masking requirements at Stagecoach 2022, in accordance with local guidelines,” Stagecoach organizers tweeted Tuesday.
Stagecoach is one of the largest and highest-grossing country music festivals in the world, attracting some 85,000 music fans to Indio, Calif., each year, Forbes reported. This year’s festival is scheduled for April 29-May 1.
Coachella, which brings together about 250,000 people for its annual Indio festival featuring music’s biggest names, said on its website that it, too, would not require vaccination, testing or masking at the April 15-17 and April 22-24 events.
The site does warn of the disease’s dangers.
“COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death,” Coachella said on its website, adding that “there is no guarantee, express or implied, that those attending the festival will not be exposed to COVID-19.”
Goldenvoice, a California-based concert-promotions company, runs both festivals. Coachella and Stagecoach’s 2020 concerts were canceled because of the pandemic, and neither was held in 2021.
