Frank Ocean will not perform his headlining slot closing out the second weekend of Coachella, per Variety. The entertainment trade publication also cited sources claiming that the newly-reunited Blink-182 will take over the festival finale on Sunday, April 23rd.
In a statement shared with media outlets, Ocean’s representatives said, “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, Frank is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
The singer added to the statement saying, “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.”
This news comes after Ocean generated controversy with his closing set from weekend one of Coachella in Indio. The grandiose performance was due to include a massive stage design centered around an ice rink with Ocean flanked by skaters. In a new episode of the Empty Netters podcast, hosts Dan and Chris Powers, who were two of the 120 figure skaters and hockey players employed for the show, described the internal meltdown that happened days before the performance.
“Those figure skaters got cut not because there was an ice issue, not because there was something wrong,” Dan said. “There was no malfunction. He [Ocean] 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.”
When Ocean finally took the stage an hour late, he reportedly turned in a low-energy performance that was also cut short due to the festival’s curfew (though headliners Bad Bunny and Calvin Harris all broke curfew on Friday and Saturday, collectively costing the festival $117,000 in fines). Rather than being surrounded by ice skaters, the auxiliary cast of 30 performers instead shuffled around the stage on foot, frequently obscuring the audience’s view of the singer. The view was even worse from home, as shortly before the performance Ocean’s team revoked the festival’s ability to livestream the performance.
Meanwhile, just days before the festival organizers added a surprise reunion set by the classic Blink-182 lineup. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker performed with Tom DeLonge for the first time since 2014 with an 18-song set on Friday evening. While the band was originally due to begin a two-year, worldwide reunion tour last month in South America, Barker suffered a freak finger injury that moved the start date to May 4th in Minnesota.
The breakneck pace of the band’s performance coupled with Hoppus and DeLonge’s effortless sophomoric banter—livestreamed around the globe on Coachella’s YouTube channel—showed audiences worldwide that Blink-182 is back. Now, with Ocean stepping down as headliner, it appears the trio may be ready for the top slot.
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