​Kanye West pulls out of Coachella just a week before festival headline slot

Kanye West has pulled out of his headline slot at California’s annual Coachella Festival, according to reports.

The rapper dropped out of the bill just over a week before Coachella is due to go ahead, which takes place across both April 15-17 and April 22-24 weekends.

Both TMZ and Variety reported the news of Kanye’s decision on Monday, April 4, with TMZ adding that festival organisers understood that the rapper needed time to “work on himself”.

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Ye was slated to play alongside Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Swedish House Mafia across both weekends. While there was no reason linked to his dropout, talks of him being removed from the line-up started last month.

A petition asking for the rapper to be removed from the festival bill accumulated almost 50,000 signatures after he was called out for public harassment of his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and her new partner, Pete Davidson.

“We have watched Kanye harass, manipulate, and hurt Kim, Pete, and others for over a year now. No one seems to want to stand up to him, and the ones that do, he puts under fire as well,” the petition description reads.

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According to TMZ, festival honchos have “no animosity towards Ye” but understand he’s going through “personal issues”, and needs time for himself.

With just over a week to go until the festival, which kicks off next Friday at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, organisers have yet to fill his spot or make any announcements.

Rumours circulated last month that the rapper would be taking Travis Scott on stage for his first big performance return since 2021’s Astroworld tragedy. The rapper’s only performance since November last year came last week when he played at a pre-show Academy Awards party.

This isn't the first time Ye has dropped out of the Californian festival. In 2019, the rapper pulled out of the event due to a disagreement over his stage design.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter