Photo Credit: Andrew Ruiz
California is considering a ban on live events and festivals for the rest of the year. Is a Coachella cancellation incoming?
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says large sporting events and festivals are unlikely to happen until 2021. Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Garcetti said the possible ban is being discussed internally.
“Nothing I’ve heard would indicate that we’ll be in those large, thousands-of-people gatherings anytime soon. Probably not for the rest of this year,” Garcetti told Blitzer.
He went on to say that he hopes there is some way health officials can green light large events. However, he believes it is unlikely due to a lack of testing and preventative treatments.
“Until there’s either a vaccine, some pharmaceutical intervention or herd immunity, the science is the science,” Garcetti says. His comments follow reports of a conference call on Monday announcing the possible restrictions. Garcetti flatly told staff that public gatherings might need to be put on hold until 2021.
California Governor Gavin Newsom seems to be echoing the sentiment, saying social gatherings are impossible until we get herd immunity or a vaccine.
That means Coachella is facing cancellation rather than postponement for 2020.
The situation isn’t much better in New York, where Mayor Bill De Blasio says large gatherings are one of the last things to come back. Both New York City and Los Angeles are home to several sporting arenas and concert venues. With these cities offline to social events for the foreseeable future, it’s looking more and more like 2020 is canceled.
Dr. Anthony Fauci echoed these sentiments last week when speaking with the press. He says sporting events may come back without audiences, but that doesn’t work for music festivals. Half of the atmosphere of a festival is meeting new fans and people who share a love of music. That’s impossible with the current social distancing measures that are needed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.