Fans Fuming After Frank Ocean's Coachella Set Delayed One Hour, Cut Short Due To Curfew

17 April 2023 | 8:49 pm | Jessie Lynch
Originally Appeared In

"Frank Ocean closing at Coachella was so disappointing. Dunno what happened, but whatever it was, it left a sour taste at the end."

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It was arguably the most hyped event on the Coachella Week One calendar, but Frank Ocean's highly-anticipated return to the stage was marred by the performance running late and being cut short due to curfew.

In what marked his first live performance since 2017, punters gathered at the main stage ahead of Ocean's 10:05 pm scheduled arrival, which ended up being one hour delayed.

When Ocean finally hit the stage, he kicked off with Novacane, Come On World, You Can’t Go!, Crack Rock, Bad Religion, and White Ferrari, before giving a touching speech about attending the festival with his late brother, Ryan Breaux, who died in a car crash in 2020.

“It’s been so long but I have missed you. I wanna talk about why I’m here because it’s not because of a new album – not that there’s not an album, but there’s not right now”.

“I know he would have been so excited to be with all of us and I wanted to say thank you for all the support and the love all these years,” Ocean added.

He covered a number of his other hits, as well as Aaliyah’s At Your Best (You Are Love), before telling the crowd that the festival had hit its curfew limit and he would need to end his set.

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Many took to social media to express their disappointment over both Ocean running late and the set ending early.

"Frank Ocean didn’t let Coachella livestream his performance on Youtube, he showed up an hour late so had to end the show early cause of the curfew. why is this man like this? He did the same thing to us at park-life fest," one fan posted on Twitter.

Another added, "Frank Ocean closing at Coachella was so disappointing :( dunno what happened, but whatever it was, it left a sour taste at the end. Great weekend otherwise…."



Adding insult to injury, the lacklustre performance followed fans watching from home being left reeling after it was announced just hours before his performance that Coachella had canned Ocean's forthcoming live stream.

YouTube then confirmed that his show will not be streamed on Coachella’s channel. 

"Frank Ocean is not scheduled to appear on the Coachella livestream. The current schedule is in the description," a Tweet from YouTube read.