Cactus Plant Flea Market for Coachella 2022.
Set for a first-of-its-kind artist residency at Coachella 2022. More from this collaboration will debut ahead of the show, and on-site in the desert 🌵
đź“ŤCactus Plant Flea Market for Coachella billboards; Los Angeles, CA pic.twitter.com/sN36bwgLIi
— Coachella (@coachella) March 11, 2022
In a move that will undoubtedly prove to be controversial, Goldenvoice has announced that it’s dropping COVID-19 safety protocols from its upcoming Coachella Music Festival, and will not require proof of vaccination, a negative COVID test, or masks. The promoter previously rolled back its vaccination policy but has now done away with all other precautions, as well.
Updating the festival’s health and safety rules page, organizers wrote, “In accordance with local guidelines, there will be no vaccination, testing or masking requirements at Coachella 2022. “However, 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 as determined by federal, state or local government agencies or instrumentalities, artists or the promoter.”
With California loosening COVID safety rules, Coachella would be exempted from the few remaining guidelines regarding vaccinations and masks, which will only be enforced for indoor events of 1,000 or more attendees. Goldenvoice’s updated rules still include the disclaimer warning that COVID-19 “is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death.”
This year’s Coachella festival is set to be headlined by Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Kanye West, although Kanye threatened to drop out if Eilish didn’t issue an apology to Travis Scott — something she’s shown seemingly little interest in doing. Coachella takes place April 15-17 and 22-24 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. You can find more information here.
At least one Astroworld Festival victim’s family didn’t appreciate their loved one being used as a prop by Kanye West when the volatile star demanded an apology from Billie Eilish on behalf of Travis Scott, calling Ye’s comments “hurtful” and “ridiculous,” according to Rolling Stone.
Bernon Blount, whose nine-year-old grandson Ezra Blount was the youngest victim of the crowd crush at Astroworld that left nine others dead and hundreds injured, said, “To hear Kanye’s words, that’s hurtful to us. What an idiotic thing to say.” Ezra’s grandmother Tericia Blount also had words for Kanye, saying, “I think it’s just crazy, and I hate to use that word, but I think it’s ridiculous. She’s making sure that she is caring for the patrons at her concert, and I just think that’s crazy of Kanye to even let that demand come out of his mouth.”
Eilish issued the statement for which Kanye demanded an apology at one of her recent shows, stopping performing until a distressed fan received medical attention. Explaining to impatient concert attendees why she wasn’t performing, she said, “We’re taking care of our people. I’m waiting for people to be OK until I keep going.” Reporting on the incident, some outlets interpreted her comment as a dig at Travis Scott, who reportedly continued performing during the crowd crush, at least 30 minutes after authorities declared a mass casualty event.
Kanye, taking his cue from one of those outlets — a gossip Instagram page that simply framed Billie’s statement as a straight-up diss — posted his all-caps apology demand on Instagram, threatening to cancel his upcoming Coachella headlining set otherwise. In response, Eilish commented, “Literally never said a thing about Travis. Was just helping a fan.”
The Blounts appear to be taking Eilish’s side in the disagreement, with Bernon telling Rolling Stone, “That’s crazy that he wants someone to apologize for putting the welfare of someone else before their profits. That’s someone who needed their asthma pump. They could have lost their life, right then. This world is twisted, and we have to stop doing this.” Terecia echoed this sentiment, saying, “I totally commend Billie Eilish for having that decency about her. I think what she did was wonderful, and I would love to tell her myself how brilliant and awesome she is for doing so.”
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than two hours after Kanye West posted on Instagram demanding that Billie Eilish apologize to his would-be Coachella special guest Travis Scott for her comments during a recent show, Eilish responded in the comments to notify West that she not only has no intentions of doing so but she also doesn’t have anything to apologize for.
Kanye, who, like many, interpreted Eilish’s recent comments as a dig at Travis Scott posted the all-caps demand after apparently coming across an Instagram gossip account’s report of the facts. “COME ON BILLIE WE LOVE YOU PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO TRAV AND TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES NO ONE INTENDED THIS TO HAPPEN TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED,” he wrote, before adding the threat, “NOW I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM [at Coachella, where Billie is also set to headline].” This is the rockstar equivalent of getting skunked at pickup so you take your ball and go home, but Billie handled the situation as graciously as could be.
“Literally never said a thing about Travis,” she reminded the mercurial rapper. “Was just helping a fan.” This is, in fact, what she did, stopping her show mid-performance to ensure a fan who couldn’t breathe got an inhaler while noting, “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.” Some construed this as a slight toward Travis Scott, who reportedly performed for nearly 40 minutes during the Astroworld mass casualty disaster, but anyone who’s been to enough shows can tell you this is something performers say quite a lot — I mentioned in my recap of 2019’s Real Street Fest that Kanye’s own former artist Big Sean did and said as much during his own set.
Billie Eilish responds to Kanye West asking her to apologize for allegedly dissing Travis Scott:
“literally never said a thing about travis. was just helping a fan” pic.twitter.com/kMLCwk0Hzh
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 10, 2022
If Travis Scott’s feeling guilty, that’s on him to settle with his own conscience. And while Kanye is running around demanding apologies perhaps he should consider offering one of his own for the last five years he subjected us all to.
It looks like Travis Scott is still headling Coachella after all — sort of. After the Houston rapper was dropped from the lineup following the mass casualty disaster at his own Astroworld Festival last summer, it appears he found a loophole to get back on the stage at Coachella (no, not that petition full of fake signatures): by joining Kanye West’s headlining set instead. Kanye appeared to confirm that he planned to bring out Travis in an Instagram post today, writing, “YES TRAV WILL BE WITH ME AT COACHELLA.”
However, there’s one other caveat: Fellow headliner (and Travis replacement) Billie Eilish must first apologize to Travis Scott for hurting his feelings. In Kanye’s all-caps post, he railed against Billie for her comments during one of her own recent shows, during which she stopped performing to get a distressed fan medical assistance. “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going,” she said. Some fans interpreted the statement as a shot at Travis, who reportedly continued performing for almost 40 minutes after authorities had declared a mass casualty event at Astroworld.
According to Kanye, “TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED.” However, without an apology from Billie for… explaining herself, I guess… Kanye says, “I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM.” I’m not sure there’s an opt-out clause in his performance agreement for being insulted by pop stars half his age. He also recently demanded an apology from the whole Kardashian family for his own antics, so maybe he’ll spend the extra sulking time figuring his life out.
Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, The World Tour is officially in full swing. Last night, she was in Washington D.C. to perform and she and brother Finneas even stopped by The White House to say what’s up to President Joe Biden. But something Eilish said on stage this past weekend at her Atlanta concert has really ruffled Kanye West’s feathers, and now his Coachella headlining appearance could be in jeopardy if Eilish doesn’t act.
A fan in the Atlanta crowd was apparently having trouble breathing and needed an inhaler. Eilish was made aware of this and briefly stopped the show. “Do we have an inhaler? Can we just grab one?” she asks the arena, before someone presents an inhaler to the fan. “We got one! Guys, give her some time. Don’t crowd. It’s ok, relax. We’re taking care of our people!” she says, reassuring the fan. Then as the situation calms down, Eilish walks back to restart the show and says, “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.”
During her latest concert, Billie Eilish noticed that a fan was having trouble breathing.
So she stopped the entire concert of 20,000+ people — all for one fan — then told her crew to bring an inhaler so the fan could breath again.
This is humanity. pic.twitter.com/o09mhZG8Co
— Goodable (@Goodable) February 9, 2022
This was interpreted by some as a reference to Travis Scott and the tragic crowd control issue at the Astroworld Festival that left at least ten people in the crowd dead. Kanye West just caught wind of what Eilish said and in an Instagram post today and demanded (in all caps) that she apologize to Scott for the comment, or he won’t perform at Coachella — where Eilish and Ye are both headlining. He also said that Scott wouldn’t perform either, whom he subsequently confirmed in the post is going to be his guest performer at the festival.
COME ON BILLIE WE LOVE YOU PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO TRAV AND TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES NO ONE INTENDED THIS TO HAPPEN TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED AND YES TRAV WILL BE WITH ME AT COACHELLA BUT NOW I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM
Eilish has yet to issue a response.
For the first time ever in the festival’s history, Coachella is selling lifetime guest passes to the event, and it’s happening via an NFT called the Coachella Keys Collection. Ten tokens will be auctioned off that includes passes to the fest every April and VIP experiences in 2022 — which features headliners Billie Eilish, Kanye West, and Harry Styles — like front row views at the Coachella Stage, on-stage access at the Sahara Tent, and a celebrity chef dinner in the Rose Garden.
“We’ve all seen how NFTs enable true ownership of art and media on the internet,” Sam Schoonover, Innovation Lead for Coachella, said in a statement. “We wanted to take it one step further and use NFTs to enable ownership of experiences in the real world, too.”
In addition to the Coachella Keys Auction, which starts this Friday, Coachella is also offering two NFT collections that feature digital collectibles and physical posters and photo books, all through the FTX crypto exchange. There are 10,000 each of the Sights & Sounds Collection ($60), which features 10 digital festival images and a physical print of one of the ten. There are also 10,000 NFTs in the Desert Reflection Collection ($180), which includes 1 of 10 digital renditions of a Coachella poster by Emek and a copy of the photo book, Coachella | The Photographs 1999-2019.
FTX US’s President Brett Harrison added, “Not only are we excited to partner with a progressive forward-thinking music festival in Coachella, but also working together to make the world a better place.”
Lofty goals aside, it’ll be interesting to see how much the 10 Coachella keys NFT’s fetch at an auction. The sales go live online on Friday, February 4 at 10 a.m. PT through Friday, February 11 at 5 p.m. PT at nft.coachella.com.
Coachella’s 2022 festival is set to kick off in less than three months, with Kanye West, Billie Eilish, and Harry Styles serving as headliners. It’ll be the festival’s first iteration since 2019, after they were forced to cancel the ones set for 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. When first announced in 2020, Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, and Rage Against The Machine were announced as the headliners. It was originally believed that the trio would headline his year’s show, but Frank’s set was postponed until 2023 while Scott and Rage Against The Machine were dropped from the lineup.
Many Travis Scott supporters are upset that he won’t be there, which most likely came as a result of the tragedy at his 2021 Astroworld Festival. So they’ve taken matters into their own hands. A petition calling for the rapper’s appearance at Coachella next year currently has nearly 70,000 signatures, with the goal of obtaining at least 75,000. It also calls for Kanye West to help deliver a Scott performance at Coachella.
“Book Travis for 2023 or have Ye bring him out!” a statement on the petition reads. “After Coachella unfairly removed Travis Scott for Harry Styles, they need to do the right thing and rebook him immediately.” It continues, “Coachella switched Travis and Frank for Harry Styles and Billie Eilish? What kind of message does that send? Fans are demanding refunds and selling their tickets. Coachella needs to fix this asap.” The statement concludes, “We all know Astroworld tragedy wasn’t Travis fault. Let him get back to performing on the biggest stages!”
It should be noted that Coachella did not intentionally switch either Frank Ocean for either Harry Styles or Billie Eilish. Back in August, months before either the two were announced as headliners, Coachella’s co-founder said Frank would miss the 2022 festival because he was unavailable for the rescheduled dates. Frank will instead perform in 2023.
You can view the Travis Scott petition here.
Baby Keem just completed his tour for debut album The Melodic Blue to cap his breakout 2021, but he’s already preparing to hit the road again, just a few months later. This spring, he’s heading back out to perform 28 shows in nearly as many cities, starting out in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 7 and finishing up six weeks later with a pair of performances at Coachella Festival, with a quick stop in the Bay Area between.
Check out the dates below. Tickets go on sale here beginning January 28 at 10 am local time.
3/7 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
3/8 – Detroit, MI @ Saint Andrew’s Hall
3/10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
3/11 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
3/13 – New York, NY @ Terminal 5
3/14 – Providence, RI @ Fete Music Hall
3/15 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
3/17 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
3/18 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
3/20 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle Atlanta
3/22 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
3/23 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
3/24 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution Live
3/26 – New Orleans, LA @ BUKU Music + Art Project
3/27 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville
3/29 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
3/30 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
4/1 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
4/2 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore Minneapolis
4/5 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom
4/6 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
4/8 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
4/9 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas
4/12– Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
4/13 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
4/15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
4/18 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
4/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella
