Frank Ocean will not be performing at Weekend 2 of Coachella this Sunday.
Source: Theo Wargo / Getty
Following a headlining performance that received a lot of backlash this past weekend, Frank Ocean dropped out of his follow-up performance for Weekend 2, Variety reported on Wednesday. A source close to the situation says his spot will be taken by Blink-182.
“Frank Ocean will not be performing at weekend 2 of Coachella after suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1,” the statement read. “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, [Ocean] is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
The note concludes with a statement from Frank himself, who said: “‘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.’ — Frank Ocean.”
The news comes after days of chatter surrounding Ocean’s set during the festival’s first weekend, which started an hour late and ended early due to curfews. Plus, an elaborate performance involving an ice rink and dozens of skaters was planned but suddenly called off.
While multiple sources say the big production was abruptly canceled just hours before Ocean’s performance was to begin because the singer decided he didn’t want to do it, the statement says that it was called off because of an ankle injury he’d suffered earlier in the week.
Two former hockey players, who bailed on Frank Ocean’s Coachella performance have spoken up about the experience on a podcast. Brothers Dan and Chris Powers say that they and more than a hundred other skaters had a positive experience through a good month of rehearsal in Los Angeles, and even a successful dress rehearsal on the Coachella main stage — only to have Ocean render most of the skaters’ services unnecessary as he scrapped the entire routine.
“Those figure skaters got cut not because there was an ice issue, not because there was something wrong,” Dan Powers said on the “Empty Netters” podcast prior to the cancellation of Ocean’s Weekend 2 performance. “There was no malfunction. He just straight-up was like, ‘F**k this. I’m not doing this anymore.’ And (to) these 120 people (he) had bused out here, he was just like, ‘You guys aren’t doing s**t now.’ So it was just like a wild flip.”
The Powers brothers went on to say that sending skaters home would have been more excusable a few days earlier, not after they’d sat around in makeup and uniform in tents for much of Sunday afternoon.
“We both know how show business works in a lot of ways. Production is a mess in everything, all the time,” said Chris Powers. He added that it would have been “a worthy experience if it had gone off correctly, right? But I would say that there was a lot of sunk time for the participants throughout this, because we’ve been rehearsing for months… And you guys gotta keep in mind that the skating portion was huge. It was gonna be like 120 skaters, and the people that walked (around on stage in the final show) was only 30 or whatever.”
“And that means that these people bused to Coachella without a pass can’t go into the festival,” he continued. “They are literally sitting in a tent in the baking sun. This is a group of people who (were) about to perform on stage with the headliner and were not given passes. Which blew my mind.”
Still, the brothers had nothing but praise for how Ocean handled himself during the weeks of rehearsal, according to Variety. They say that they did hear the star had suffered an ankle injury, but they’re still unsure why that meant the ice routine he was not directly participating in had to be scrapped.
