Frank Ocean has pulled out of his planned headlining performance during the second weekend of Coachella and will be replaced by blink-182, a person with knowledge of the situation tells SPIN.
“Frank Ocean will not be performing at weekend 2 of Coachella,” a rep for Ocean said in a statement provided to SPIN. “After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity. On doctor’s advice, ARTIST is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
“It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon,” Ocean said in a statement of his own.
The news comes following widespread criticism of Ocean’s performance to close weekend one of the festival on Sunday (April 16), which was his first major live set in six years. During it, Ocean performed reworked versions of many of his most popular songs, including “Novacane,” “Crack Rock,” “Pink + White,” and “Bad Religion,” but he also took the stage an hour late, disappeared for long stretches, gave over valuable time to a mystifying DJ segment, and eventually cut the set short 20 minutes after it sailed past Coachella’s midnight curfew.
Today, details emerged about an aborted plan to include an ice rink on stage during the performance. According to former pro hockey players Chris and Dan Powers on their Empty Netters podcast, they and more than 100 other skaters were hired to perform during the set and spent weeks rehearsing in Los Angeles. They claim all but a handful of these people were then left in the lurch on hot buses or outside the Coachella grounds when Ocean decided not to utilize the ice rink at the last minute, a turn of events which contrasts with assertions from the Ocean camp that this element of the show was only scrapped due to his injury.
As for blink-182, its promotion to Coachella headliner status seems to be a case of right place, right time. The rock trio was a surprise addition to last Friday’s festivities, during which it performed with its classic lineup for the first time in nine years.
