For the anime and Japanese music fans who will be attending this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, we have a bit of bad news for you. The event’s official Twitter account announced on Tuesday that its organizer Goldenvoice has decided to postpone the event and will be scheduled to October 9-11 and October 16-18. Its sister event Stagecoach Festival is also postponed to a later date on October 23-25. Those who already purchased their tickets to the mentioned events may have the option for a refund. The organizers will give a notification to the ticket buyers very soon. The reason for the postponement was related to health concerns on the current Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s Coachella will be featuring some Japanese icons like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Vocaloid icon Hatsune Miku.

Kiriko Takemura, known professionally as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, is a Japanese singer, model, and blogger. Her public image is associated with Japan’s kawaii and decora culture, centered in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo, Pamyu Pamyu’s music is produced by musician Yasutaka Nakata of electronic music duo Capsule. One of the songs that got her to great popularity is PONPONPON.

Hatsune Miku is the name of a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorph, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. She uses Yamaha Corporation’s Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3, and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesizing technologies.

In relation to this, Miku’s North American concert tour is delayed as well and further details will be released soon.

As of Thursday, the World Health Organization has already recorded 125,048 people are infected with COVID-19 in which 80,981 of them came from Wuhan, China. 3,173 deaths have been recorded worldwide so far. WHO reported that there are already 620 COVID-19 cases in Japan in which 15 have died. The tally has not included the passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise in which 696 people are infected. The mentioned cruise ship was docked in Yokohama.

The World Health Organization has already declared the Coronavirus as a pandemic and it has urged the public to remain calm and follow the necessary protocols implemented by health authorities worldwide to contain the virus.

Source: ANN