Coachella and Stagecoach Officially Canceled Due to Coronavirus

The festivals were originally scheduled for spring 2020, and then postponed to October, and then postponed again to April of this year

2019 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Nearly eight months after Coachella and Stagecoach was postponed for a second time, Riverside County health officials have canceled the festivals indefinitely.

"The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival currently scheduled for April 2021 are hereby canceled," the county's public health officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said in an order on Friday.

Kaiser said that the cancellation is a direct result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and concerns about large gatherings.

"If COVID-19 were detected at these festivals, the scope and number of attendees and the nature of the venue would make it infeasible, if not impossible, to track those who may be placed at risk," the order said.

2015 Stagecoach Country Music Festival. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The annual festivals were originally scheduled for April 2020, but because of the pandemic were postponed to October.

In June, however, Kaiser announced that the festivals would be postponed once again.

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Goldenvoice, which puts on the festivals, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on the cancellation Friday.

Last June, Goldenvoice told PEOPLE that it had "every intention" of putting on the festivals in 2021.

California is currently leading the U.S. in COVID-19 cases with more than 3.2 million, according to data from the New York Times. Riverside County has had 271,910 COVID-19 cases, according to public health data. ICU bed availability in the Southern California region remains at zero percent.

Nationwide, there have been more than 25.8 million cases of the contagious respiratory virus, and at least 434,783 people have died from COVID-19.

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