Festival officials demanded AHF remove “Catch More Than Vibes?” STD testing billboard attendees will see on I-10 Westbound when driving home from party weekends
LOS ANGELES (March 28, 2024) – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival organizers contacted AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, this week and demanded the nonprofit provider take down a billboard posted on I-10 Westbound advertising free sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing services that reads, “Catch More Than Vibes?” with the URL FreeSTDCheck.org which festivalgoers will see as they are leaving the Indio, CA area.
The Coachella-themed billboard went up Tuesday, March 26, 2024 and will remain up throughout April as Coachella spans two weekends: April 12-14 and April 19-21.
“What are Coachella organizers afraid of? Do they really not know how people spend their time during festival weekends?” said Michael Weinstein, AHF president and cofounder. “It doesn’t help anyone to bury their heads in the desert sand and pretend people aren’t having sex. We want everyone to use condoms and practice safer sex, but if they don’t, we also want them to know where to get STD tested easily and for free.”
In addition to HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, AHF provides free STD testing and treatment at 39 Wellness Centers in 14 states nationwide, plus Washington, DC. Five of those Wellness Centers are in California.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise nationwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “more than 2.5 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia were reported in the United States” in 2022. California ranks 22 in reported cases of chlamydia, 18th in reported cases of gonorrhea, and 19th in cases of syphilis.
