Winds force Coachella changes
Violent winds disrupted Coachella campgrounds and stages, forcing EDM artist Anyma to cancel a Friday‑night set while Sabrina Carpenter is reported to have headlined Friday’s opening. (latimes.com) On‑the‑ground roundups described crews and organizers managing weather impacts across the festival grounds. (pressenterprise.com)
Coachella’s first Friday ended with a main-stage cancellation after strong winds forced Anyma off the schedule just after midnight in Indio. (billboard.com) Festival organizers said late Friday that “strong wind conditions” were affecting Anyma’s stage build, and the set was called off about 15 minutes after its scheduled midnight start on April 10. Sabrina Carpenter had played the Coachella Stage earlier that night in the 9:05 p.m. headlining slot. (billboard.com, usatoday.com) Anyma said on Instagram that his team had spent a year building the show and that “safety always comes first,” while Billboard reported he remained scheduled for Weekend 2 at press time. The canceled performance was billed as the debut of his new audiovisual production, ÆDEN. (billboard.com, edm.com) The wind was not a brief gust. The National Weather Service forecast for the Coachella Valley and nearby San Gorgonio Pass called for Friday afternoon and night winds with gusts reaching 45 to 50 miles per hour, along with blowing dust in desert areas. (weather.gov, weather.gov) That forecast showed up on the festival grounds. The Los Angeles Times reported damaged campsites and disruptions across campgrounds and stages, while The Press-Enterprise described crews and organizers working through weather problems around the Empire Polo Club on opening day. (latimes.com, pressenterprise.com) The timing mattered because this is Coachella’s 25th-anniversary edition, and Friday was the first night of Weekend 1, which runs April 10 to 12 in Indio. Set times released earlier in the week had put Carpenter and Anyma back-to-back on the main stage as one of the festival’s biggest opening-night sequences. (desertsun.com, consequence.net) Coachella has dealt with desert wind before, but this year’s Friday forecast was unusually rough for a festival night, with the San Diego weather office warning of stronger onshore flow and gusty desert winds through the weekend. That left organizers balancing a tightly timed live production against the risk that wind can destabilize stage elements, screens and suspended equipment. (weather.gov, weather.gov) By Saturday, Coachella was moving into Day 2 with the festival still running, but Friday’s ending had already been rewritten by the weather: a headliner played, a crowd waited for midnight, and the desert wind made the final call. (desertsun.com, billboard.com)
