Anyma Cancels First Night Coachella Performance Following Dust Storm

Strong winds which raised up a huge dust storm at Coachella’s campgrounds on Friday night forced the cancelation of Italian-American DJ Anyma’s midnight set, scheduled to take place about 90 minutes after Sabrina Carpenter’s spectacular headlining show, which went off before the real damage took place.

Anyma, whose real name is Matteo Milleri, is one-half of the EDM duo Tale of Us. He made history as the first electronic music artist to perform at the Sphere in Las Vegas when he brought his “The End of Genesys” residency there for an eight-day run, starting on December 29, 2024, and lasting through early 2025, featuring his 360-degree immersive visuals designed especially for the venue’s fabled LED system. Four shows in February and March were added after 100,000 tickets for the first six dates were sold in 24 hours., with guest artists including Ellie Goulding, fka twigs, John Smmit, Grimes, Luke Steele and Yeat, the first rapper ever to perform at the venue.

Anyma’s Coachella performance was canceled with an announced “schedule update” at 12:17a, followed by a statement posted to the festival app: “Due to strong wind conditions affecting Anyma’s stage build, he is unable to perform. Coachella & Anyma have made this decision together with your safety as the priority. Further updates to come.”

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Viewers watching the livestream at home learned of the cancelation when the message “Stage Wrapped” appeared under the “Main Stage” listing, where Anyma had been scheduled to perform. No announcement was made of a rescheduled time for next week’s edition.

Anyma previously performed at Coachella last year accompanying Yeat, while also appearing at such festivals as Tomorrowland in Belgium, the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Zurich Open Air in Switzerland and Rock en Seine in France.

The strong winds sent torrents of dust over the festival site, decimating campsites with tents, canopies and personal belongings scattered, as people began posting videos of the destruction on social media.

The South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District had already issued an air quality alert for the area due to the dust pollution. Meteorologists predicted gusts of up to 35 miles per hour kicking up large particulate matter pollution and raising possible health hazards.

The National Weather Service cautioned that “particle pollution can get deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems such as asthma attacks, heart and lung disease symptoms, and increased risk of lung infections.”

The wind really started picking up after Sabrina Carpenter’s performance, with several reports of flyaway tents breaking car windows.