Singer Kanye West pulled out of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival because the event organisers wouldn't build him a giant dome.
According to billboard.com, on January 1, just two days before Coachella co-founder Paul Tollett was set to announce Kanye West as one of the stars headlining the desert festival, West sprung a last-minute surprise on the concert promoter. Instead of performing on the main Coachella stage, West asked Tollett to construct a giant, custom-built dome in the middle of the festival grounds.
The dome would be designed by West's collaborator and set designer John McGuire.
When senior executives from Coachella parent Goldenvoice explained that the dome would be impossible to build in four months and would require the AEG-owned concert promoter to rearrange the entire festival site and remove a large section of portable bathrooms, West became irritated, declaring that he was an artiste with a creative vision and shouldn't be spending his time talking about portable toilets.
A source told Billboard that West had taken the call while on vacation with his family and said it was Goldenvoice's responsibility to deal with the bathrooms. He then hung up abruptly, sources said.
Before the day was over, Tollett and his team at Goldenvoice were in talks with SB Projects' founder Scooter Braun to have his client Ariana Grande replace West on the line-up. Braun had terminated his professional relationship with West in early December, Billboard has learned, marking the second split in 2018 between the mega-manager and the rapper.
Less than 24 hours after West pulled out, Grande was confirmed for the final night. Australian rock band Tame Impala was elevated to the top headliner slot in December to replace Justin Timberlake, who dropped off the line-up after his rescheduled tour dates due to bruised vocal cords conflicted with Coachella's radius clause.
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