When Coachella announced their mammoth lineup earlier this month, one heavily-rumoured name was notably missing from the poster: Kanye West.
The hip-hop legend and controversy magnet had a sizeable 2018, releasing his own album Ye, collaborating extensively with Kid Cudi, and putting his production touches on numerous other G.O.O.D. Music projects, including Pusha T’s excellent Daytona. It would’ve made perfect sense for Kanye to then headline this year’s Coachella, but new reports reveal that he pulled out from the event because organisers wouldn’t build him a giant dome.
According to Billboard, West was set to be announced as a Coachella headliner on January 3, but just two days before – on New Year’s Day – he told Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett that he would not be performing on the main stage, and asked him to construct a dome in the middle of the festival grounds, in collaboration with Ye’s designer John McGuire.
When senior executives told West that it was impossible to build the dome in four months, and that it would require the entire festival site to be rearranged and a section of portable toilets to be removed, West – who was vacationing at the time – reportedly hung up the phone. Soon after, Ariana Grande was locked in as a replacement headline act.
West had reportedly been eyed out as a Coachella headliner for several years, but the dome-less venue was just not enough for Ye. Billboard further state that the dome would see West playing “in the centre of the dome in an in-the-round format, and the dome would be tricked out with high-tech production and immersive video.”
Let’s pray that Kanye’s headline tour features all the dome, and more.
