When Coachella announced its headliners this year, Kanye West's name was surprisingly left out of the headlining slot that he was rumored to fill and now new reports offer more insight into what exactly happened to cause Kanye to be left off of the bill of the legendary festival.
According to Billboard, New Year's Day was the date on which Kanye hit festival organizers with a last-minute request for his set, asking that a giant dome be built on festival grounds for his performance, forgoing the traditional main stage. The dome was set to be designed by John McGuire. However, the specs of the dome apparently made it impossible to construct in four months and would require that the festival grounds be rearranged, effectively removing a portion of portable bathrooms to accommodate Kanye West.
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“He has some great [production] ideas, but we just weren't able to pull them off right now," Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett told Los Angeles Times without going into detail about the dome. "I'd like to circle back with him and figure out a future plan of what to do with what's in his head. He's very capable of coming up with ideas that work that are pretty great. Up until Jan. 1, we were making a poster with Kanye on it. We started realizing we're probably going to have an impasse production-wise.”
According to Billboard, Kanye became frustrated with the setbacks and declared "that he was an artist with a creative vision who shouldn't be spending his time talking about port-a-potties." According to sources, the conversation happened while Kanye was on vacation with his family. He reportedly hung up on the phone call after stating that dealing with the bathrooms was the responsibility of Goldenvoice, Coachella's parent company. Billboard adds that less than 24 hours later, Coachella booked Ariana Grande to replace Kanye.