Countless tours and festivals have been canceled or postponed due to growing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. South By Southwest was scrapped just days before its launch day, resulting in over $350 million dollars in lost revenue for Austin. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam just postponed their massive Gigaton North American tour.
Coachella is now following suit, as the festival’s production company Goldenvoice is moving the event from April to October. All flower crown and influencer jokes aside, as with the SXSW situation, pushing back Coachella some six months will likely result in economic disruptions. The postponement may also lead to major complications for touring artists, whose routes and music release schedules relied heavily on Coachella’s originally planned dates.
However, not everyone sees Coachella’s potential rescheduling as a bad thing. Tesla co-founder Elon Musk took to Twitter on Tuesday to make light of the coronavirus situation and diss the SoCal festival.
“Coachella should postpone itself until it stops sucking,” he bluntly wrote in a series of tweets. “Too much corporate sponsorship killed the vibe.”
Grimes’ boyfriend didn’t stop there. “Was good maybe 5 or 6 years ago when you could wonder around & find great unknown bands,” the apparently too-cool-for-school billionaire added. (Maybe he’s just salty his EDM project wasn’t booked for the festival’s Yuma Tent?)
Too much corporate sponsorship killed the vibe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
Was good maybe 5 or 6 years ago when you could wonder around & find great unknown bands
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
Coachella’s Twitter account immediately replied to Musk, and with one simple message swiftly took him down. Coachella’s Twitter responded with a photo of Jaden Smith performing from atop a suspended Tesla car during his Coachella 2019 set, captioning it simply with “lol”.
lol pic.twitter.com/t3f18vDYqq
Advertisement— Coachella (@coachella) March 10, 2020
Ok fine, that was good haha
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
Musk, recognizing that he’d just been owned and rightly called out, replied to Coachella by saying, “Ok fine, that was good haha.”
After the epic own, Musk stuck around Twitter to offer some opinions on Burning Man and how he first discovered girlfriend-to-be Grimes at Coachella 2012.
Yes, for now
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
Lucent Dossier in 2011 & I think I saw @Grimezsz in 2012 but didn’t realize who it was until later
Advertisement— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2020
