Pop-rock stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna and Beyoncé have performed here. Legacy bands such as Tame Impala, Radiohead and The Pixies have as well. People from all over the world come to this iconic three-day festival to spend time listening to music and watching artists perform live.
Held over two consecutive weekends in April across the sunny desert of Empire Polo Club, Indio, California, Coachella is a music festival that features a variety of popular artists. The festival is broken up into two weekends, with each lasting three days, labeled as “Weekend one & Weekend two” and “Coachella day one, two and three.” One artist headlines each day for both weekends, and various artists afterwards get to take the stage. This year, the first weekend of Coachella took place from April 10 through 12, and the second weekend will take place from the 17 through 19.
Members and influencers arrive at Coachella on the Thursday before, also known as “Day 0,” or early Friday to avoid traffic lines. Because Empire Polo Club is a premier 1,000-acre equestrian facility, a majority of the members car-camp over the weekend, using their parking spots as their camp site while bringing their own materials such as inflatable mattresses, food and tents to stay the weekend. The festival encourages this idea by opening public restrooms and showers for members to use.
In order to attend Coachella, tickets must be purchased from one of three different categories, each varying greatly in price. For general admission (GA), initial ticket prices start around $549 and may reach up to over $1000. General admission and shuttle, which includes the ability to use certain shuttle stops throughout the festival, ranges from $679 to over $2000. Lastly, the VIP tickets begin around $1000, but may resell for over $6000, making Coachella tickets relatively expensive.
Coachella participants usually begin preparing months in advance for the occasion. Influencers begin to post about their outfit planning, car campsites and behind-the-scenes of the festival itself as soon as April starts. Outfit trends for the festival usually include brown and beige shades, western revivals like cowboy boots and boho pieces. The outfits this year were seen to emulate looks dating back to 2016, which led to the coffee brand Starbucks bringing back their Unicorn Frappucino, a popular drink that skyrocketed sales in 2017, exclusively at the festival.
2026 Coachella Lineup
Coachella Day One‘s headliner was the famous pop-star Sabrina Carpenter, who sang popular songs like “Espresso,” “Please Please Please” and “Manchild.” Other artists who sang this day included Blood Orange, Katseye, Central Cee and Foster the People.
For Day Two, multimillionaire Justin Bieber headlined with “Baby,” “Sorry” and “Stay,” some of his most popular songs. Other artists such as PinkPantheress, Addison Rae, Fujii Kaze and Los Hermanos Flores sang later on.
Last but not least, the first Latina headliner in Coachella history, Colombian pop artist Karol G headlined Day Three with songs such as “TQG,” “PROVENZA” and “Tusa.” Laufey, BIGBANG and Gigi Perez performed as well, singing songs like “Sailor Song” (Gigi Perez), “Bang Bang Bang” (BIGBANG) and “From the Start” (Laufey). Additional line-up information can be found on Setlist.fm and Coachella..
Over the years, Coachella has become the most influential and popular music festivals in the world according to Hipmap, becoming a celebrity and influencer-focused event that allows people to meet their favorite stars. It serves as an event that blends high-profile musical performances with large-scale art installations in the scenic atmosphere of California. With the palm trees, ferris wheels and SPECTRA building creating an aesthetic environment for attendees, Coachella maintains its position as the biggest primary influence on modern festival experiences.
