This past month marked the 26th year of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Coachella is an annual two weekend long rock festival that takes place in Indio, California. Fully outdoor, the festival is held on many different stages, each of which have schedules for the artists performing. While this year’s Coachella was very successful and fun, it also had its fair share of controversial moments. The first ever Coachella took place in 1999 and many things have changed since then. Some changes are for the better, and some for the worse–let’s talk about it.
This year, the headliners were Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone, and Travis Scott. Gaga’s set was a total hit, and has since been called “the greatest Coachella performance of all time,” From the costumes to the set design to the choreography, the whole thing was perfect.
Fellow headliner Green Day also pulled out all the stops for their set, performing all their classic hits, inducing a sense of nostalgia for fans. Lead singer of the band, Billie Joe Armstrong, also used the platform to advocate for several political opinions including his opposition towards President Donald Trump, and his support for the Palestinian people. Other notable performers included Missy Elliot, Charli xcx, and Benson Boone.
There are two ways to attend Coachella. You are either sent by a big-name brand and given a place to stay, or you (much less glamorously) camp out in the desert. Typically, popular influencers are the only ones to stay in big Airbnbs while the rest have to sleep in their cars or lounge in pitched up tents.
As one might expect, this is usually a very chaotic process. However, this year it seemed to get even worse. There was a shortage of workers the day before the festival started, leading to a twelve hour line of cars waiting to get inside the venue. The killer desert heat was another negative factor of the weekend.
Since the 2010s, Coachella has been a place to experiment and express oneself through fashion. Every year, viewers from home look forward to seeing what their favorite celebrities and influencers will show up wearing. Some fans, however, are concerned that with the rising minimalist and “clean girl” aesthetics, this type of expression will go away, and outfits will go back to being nothing but basic. This year some of the fan favorites for best dressed included content creators Madeline White and Alix Earl.
While no information has yet been given about Coachella 2026, the headliners are to be announced at the end of the year. Who do you think it’s going to be?
