Coachella 2022: Will There Be COVID-19 Mask Mandates, Testing Requirements?

As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease in various cities and states across the nation, Coachella announced that it will drop the mask and vaccination requirements for attendees this 2022.

Coachella shared the information in the updated health, safety, and rules section of its website.

Coachella is held in Indio, California and will run over two weekends this time around--from April 15 to April 17 and April 22 to April 24. This year's headliners are Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Kanye "Ye" West, per CNN.

The announcement comes as many major US cities begin to remove COVID-19 mandates from companies and large events. California's mask mandate formally ended on Tuesday.

Coachella 2022: Health and Safety Rules Still Implemented

California Governor Gavin Newsom emphasized the state's declining COVID-19 case rate and hospitalizations when announcing the development.

However, organizing a music event is burdensome due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 despite the recent decline. With that said, all attendees of Coachella 2022 still have to follow policies including health and safety regulations of the festival.

Meanwhile, Coachella's sister festival Stagecoach tweeted Tuesday that its rules have changed following "local guidelines."

According to CBS News, Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs will headline Stagecoach to be held from April 29 to May 1,

The events' website reads that the festival "shall be presented under applicable public health conditions as of the date of the event," which means it could change any time depending on decisions of federal, state, or local government agencies or the organizer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that older adults and individuals with serious medical conditions may have a higher risk of getting severe COVID-19 infection and death. That is why concertgoers are advised to evaluate their risk to determine if they could attend the grand music festival.

Coachella and Stagecoach were postponed before being canceled following the initial breakout of COVID-19 in 2020.

Following a succession of outbreaks in California, the events were once again canceled last year.

Early this week, 15,390 new COVID-19 cases have been reported among the Coachella Valley's nine cities in the past seven days, as per an NBC News report.

NFT Will Be Used in Coachella 2022

Forbes reported that organizers are generating a variety of non-fungible tokens (NFT) to commemorate the event's return. While NFTs have primarily been used to track ownership of digital items, the goal with the Coachella 2022 NFTs is to link them to actual real-world benefits like lifetime admission to the festival and access to special areas and events.

But critics pointed out that some NFT implementations consume a significant amount of energy, resulting in huge carbon emissions. Others simply dismissed them as fraudulent tactics, and it's undeniable that, as with most new technology, dishonest and unscrupulous individuals have quickly figured out how to scam the naive.