Fans wondering what is happening with the Hella Mega Tour amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis has been a daily topic on the r/GreenDay subreddit – to the point that we had to start removing them as the answer has remained the same: it’s on until they say it’s not on.

Currently, that remains true, but it’s time to drop the optimism at this point and stick a fork in it and state the obvious. It’s clear now that the Hella Mega Tour will not be happening – at least not this summer as originally scheduled.

The question is, why haven’t the band cancelled or postponed the dates yet? If you look at Green Day’s upcoming tour dates prior to the start of the Hella Mega Tour, you’ll find concerts still listed as upcoming in Germany and Denmark in early June – all of which are cancelled as major events in those countries are banned until at least September. Those same restrictions will also eliminate the bands upcoming shows in Belgium and France.

Hella Mega Tour was supposed to kick off its North American segment on July 17th in Seattle, WA before heading to California for three shows. Eric Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, has already indicated he doesn’t anticipate seeing stadium concerts happen until 2021.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio agreed with this telling CNN, “I think everyone should recognize that those big events should be one of the last things that we bring back online”, which doesn’t bode well for Hella Mega’s August 22nd stop in the city.

Dr. Fauci, a lead member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, stated the following regarding sports returning this summer:

“There’s a way of doing that,” Dr. Fauci explains. “Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled. Have them tested every single week to make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family and just let them play the season out.”

If you can’t have fans in the stands this summer for sports, there is a zero percent chance fans will be allowed to pack those same stadiums for the Hella Mega concerts.

All of this is ignoring other major issues facing the tour such as border closures, non-essential travel bans and 14-day mandatory quarantines in place for travellers entering many countries.

So again, why hasn’t Green Day officially cancelled or postponed any of these upcoming dates as they did with their Asian tour? We still don’t have an answer for that right now but you’d have to figure we’ll hear something soon with just over a month to go until the band was expected to kick their tour off in Russia.

While all of this is no doubt disappointing for fans with tickets to upcoming shows, there is some good news. Green Day are planning to hit the studio to record the follow-up to Father Of All Motherfuckers as soon as self-isolation orders end. You can keep track of the latest news on that front on our Album 14 page.