Wind cancels DJ Anyma set

Strong desert winds scrubbed Anyma’s late-night Coachella set on Friday, ending the festival’s main stage earlier than planned. (bbc.com) Coachella organizers called off the performance around 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, April 11, after Anyma had been scheduled to start at midnight on the Coachella Stage in Indio, California. Organizers said the winds were affecting the stage build and that safety drove the decision. (rollingstone.com) Anyma, the performance project of Matteo Milleri, said on Instagram that he had spent a year building the show and that his team was “working on a solution now.” Billboard reported he remained scheduled for Coachella’s second weekend as of April 11. (usmagazine.com, billboard.com) The cancellation landed at the end of the festival’s first night, after Sabrina Carpenter’s headlining set on the same stage. Pre-festival schedules had billed Anyma’s midnight slot as the debut of his new “Æden” production. (consequence.net, edm.com) The wind problem stretched beyond one artist. The Los Angeles Times reported violent gusts tore through campgrounds Friday, knocking down tents and canopies and disrupting daytime activity across the Empire Polo Club. (latimes.com) Air officials had warned the valley before the cancellation. The South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a windblown dust advisory through Sunday morning and said northwest gusts could reach 50 miles per hour, with particle pollution rising to unhealthy levels in parts of the Coachella Valley. (aqmd.gov, aqmd.gov) That mattered especially for Anyma because his shows are built around large-scale visuals and stage production. Reports from the festival said other performances continued, but the wind hit his setup hard enough that organizers stopped the set before it began. (variety.com, bbc.com) Coachella runs over two weekends, with the second round scheduled for April 17 through April 19. For now, the first-weekend story is that the desert weather, not the closing act, got the final word Friday night. (djmag.com, bbc.com)