As Coachella comes to an end, Frank Ocean’s alleged ice rink continues to be the subject of major scrutiny. Ocean, who previously canceled his Week Two set due to an injury suffered on festival grounds, was allegedly going to include an elevated ice rink as part of his performance. Earlier in the week, two hockey players, Chris and Dan Powers, revealed in a podcast that they had allegedly auditioned to be performers in the production, which contained approximately 120 skaters, and were not informed of the cancellation until hours before Ocean’s set despite having gone through several rehearsals. Despite both claiming that they thought highly of Ocean throughout the process, fans’ disappointment in the sudden cancellation and lack of video coverage of his first set has caused ongoing controversy.
According to an article by Stereogum, Coachella promoter Goldenvoice had already spent several million dollars building and maintaining the rink prior to the set’s cancellation, including $4 million for construction and energy, and were allegedly going to deduct the costs from Ocean’s festival $8 million paycheck. Instead, part of Ocean’s paycheck went to Blink-182, who replaced him as the headliner for the performance. Additional closing set replacement artists Skrillex, Four Tet, and Fred Again.. also required extra paychecks, contributing to the already sizeable losses from the cancellation.
Despite this, Coachella is still slated to make a profit from its performances as it comes to an end. A report by Billboard has stated that although changes in Ocean’s set may seem monetarily drastic, Coachella’s ticket, food and hospitality sales tend to add up to over $115 million.
Photo Credit: Adam Blyweiss
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