Frank Ocean has been the talk of Coachella 2023 for all the wrong reasons. After injuring his leg in pre-festival rehearsals, Ocean arrived an hour late to his Weekend 1 closing set. He then proceeded to cut the two-hour set short to comply with the festival’s curfew. All this happen as the highly-anticipated live stream of the set was also canceled. Finally, Ocean pulled out of his Weekend 2 closing set, leaving behind disappointed fans and a giant ice rink.
Ocean was replaced by two acts. Blink-182 would perform for an hour in the original slot held by Ocean. The festival then announced a new Sunday night closer. Skrillex, Four Tet, and Fred again would be performing a combo set to close out the festival. However, Ocean’s sudden withdrawal is set to saddle Coachella with an unexpected financial setback. While it won’t put them in the red, the festival would likely have rather not paid out the fees in question.
Ocean Will Get Half Payment But Coachella Won’t Save Money
Frank Ocean was reportedly set to be paid $8 million for his two Coachella performances. According to sources who spoke to Billboard, Ocean will receive half of that payment for services rendered. However, Coachella is not saving $4 million by cutting Ocean’s payday in half. Instead, Coachella is set to lose money on the deal overall. To clarify, Coachella is still expected to overwhelmingly make a profit, but will specifically lose money on the Ocean debacle.
First, Coachella will need to pay Blink-182 a reported $4 million to replace Ocean. This means that the money saved from halving Ocean’s fee will be used to pay for his replacement. However, Coachella will also have to pay an undisclosed fee to Skrillex, Four Tet, and Fred again in order for them to serve as the new closing act. If the going rate for a set is $4 million, then Coachella could be selling out anywhere from $8 to $16 million to replace Ocean. There has been no word on how this has reflected the relationship between the festival and its long-time performance. However, many predict that Ocean will not be welcomed back to Coachella anytime soon.
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