Billie Eilish and Kanye West are set to headline at this year's sold-out Coachella festival in April.
The two-weekend festival is indeed familiar territory for Ye, having performed there three times before his 2019 Sunday Service — in 2015, 2011, and 2006.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kanye, now known as Ye, is in the process of confirming his spot for the closing sets on two straight Sundays, April 17 and 24. Fans of Ye speculate that the artist will be performing with his Sunday Service group due to Easter Sunday falling on April 17, as he did in 2019.
Variety reports, Eilish will be the youngest artist to headline at Coachella. The 20-year-old "Happier than ever" singer had a breakthrough performance in 2019.
In October, the festival announced Swedish House Media would join Rage Against the Machine and Travis Scott as a third headliner. Variety reports that after taking a five-year hiatus, the trio reunited in 2018 at Ultra Music Festival before embarking on a tour in 2019. This will be their first Coachella performance since 2012.
Initially, Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine were set to headline the music festival alongside Travis Scott. — Although his agent fought to keep him on the bill, Travis Scott Coachella removed the Houston rapper from the lineup following the Astroworld Fest tragedy in November.
Billie Eilish and Kanye West are slated to headline the 2022 Coachella festival, sources tell Variety. Swedish House Mafia are also on the bill, although it is unclear whether they are the festival’s third headliner. https://t.co/eNgcdCqSoA
pic.twitter.com/9P3sCFHQyh— Variety (@Variety) January 6, 2022
Frank Ocean announced he would move his appearance to 2023.
"Right now, it's the Wild West," Paul Tollett, the event's co-founder, told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm just trying to be fair as I can to artists and to the fans to make sure that eventually, they get to see everyone that we talked about."
Coachella is North America's largest music festival, and it has already sold out its 125,000 per-day tickets. The mere logistics of more than 100,000 people traveling to and gathering at a single place make immeasurable opportunities for spreading COVID-19.
The world-famous festival is returning to the desert at the Empire Polo Club in Indio across two consecutive weekends from Apr. 15-17 and the 22-24.
The festival has been deferred multiple times after COVID-19 forced the cancellation of its 2020 and 2021 events. Coachella had updated its policy on entry to the festival so that it's no longer a requirement to be inoculated against COVID-19 to attend.
"After seeing firsthand the low transmission data and successful implementation of safety protocols at our festivals recently, alongside the rising vaccination rate of eligible Americans, we feel confident that we can safely update our policy for Coachella that allows for [a] negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of the event OR proof of full vaccination," the update on their website read.
