I really want to go to Coachella.
The thrill of a three-day camping escapade and running through the dry California desert between giant concert stages and niche micro-influencers is certainly enough to drag me across the country. Beyond performances from the music industry’s top stars—this year’s lineup includes Lady Gaga, Charli xcx, Post Malone, Clairo and Megan Thee Stallion—and the concept of the “Coachella outfit,” which often takes inspiration from Bohemian and Y2K style, Coachella as a concept sounds both engrossing and an obligatory bucket-list event.
I recently spoke to my friends about my Coachella fascination over coffee and sushi at The Bridge. During our discussion, I turned my phone to them, flooded with videos of Charli xcx and Lady Gaga, and proudly displayed my hyper-fixation. However, they were not as impressed. “Coachella looks so miserable. Why would you want to camp in the desert for three days for a mediocre experience?” they argued. I was unable to give them a good response; are they even wrong?
Coachella, from an enjoyment standpoint, is extremely contested. On one hand, we see micro-influencers attempting to make Coachella amusing, such as Ysabelle Wallance, who is striving to “make Coachella fun again” through her self-proclaimed alternative “Ourchella.” Yet other people, often those who are not internet personalities, have begun to discuss the frequent straining effects of the festival.
The pre-TikTok Coachella was profuse, with flower crowns and festival-goers aglow. It was a time when the festival’s focus and experiences were less centered on social media validation and more on the raw performances and musical euphoria. The emphasis was on the event itself, rather than a curated online narrative.
Coachella has not always been “perfect,” and many attendees have taken the opportunity to post their experiences online, particularly on YouTube, garnering mass popularity due to the mythology of the festival. The grandest proponent of this is certainly fashion and entertainment celebrity Emma Chamberlain, whose 2018 YouTube video titled “the truth about coachella (everyone else is lying to you)” achieved 16.6 million views on the platform. This video is the genesis of the “influencer Coachella,” as Chamberlain—merely 17 years old—recorded her experience at the festival accompanied by other young influencers sent by the brand Dote. On top of that, the lineup for the festival that year was substantial, with headliners including The Weeknd, Eminem and Beyoncé (the famed “Beychella”). Exposure was at an all-time high, and the festival appeared to cement itself in the pop culture history books. The Golden Era of Coachella was upon us.
Today, however, the festival does not quite deliver the same success. The 2023 event was a disaster, particularly when Frank Ocean, who returned to the festival after a long hiatus from the music scene, was booed off the stage by his own fans due to his mediocre performance. Subsequently, Vanessa Hudgens, once dubbed the “Queen of Coachella” due to her consistent and iconic festival fashion, skipped the festival for the first time in ages in 2024. Emma Chamberlain, whose yearly Coachella videos are among the most popular festival-related content on the platform, stopped creating videos surrounding the festival. In 2024, chatter surrounding the festival grew, in particular with headliner Lana Del Rey. Yet when many fans expected pop superstar Taylor Swift to make a surprise performance during Del Rey’s set, out walked Camila Cabello instead, disappointing thousands of attendees.
On top of that, recent crowds appeared physically bored and unengaged, replacing typical dancing and singing with standstill phone recording. Undoubtedly, Coachella became a place for celebrities to act glamorous, flashing their VIP and backstage passes, while thousands of “regular” attendees simultaneously stand in line for hours to simply purchase food or use the restroom. It is not an unpopular opinion that Coachella became “too influencer-y,” as every time the festival rolls around, videos circulate like wildfire on the internet. The festival itself has become the “influencer’s Met Gala”: an outlet for online personalities to showcase their style and wealth. Most of the videos you see of the festival today are often of a creator, focusing the camera on their face and outfit rather than the actual performer.
Furthermore, the prices of the festival continue to rise, making it almost impossible for the average music fan to attend, particularly from across the country. To that end, Coachella has shifted to cater to those of the celebrity-internet world rather than its foundational audience. The festival has been around since 1999, but it has fallen victim to its popularity—it is no longer a festival for the masses, but instead for the wealthy. For this reason, my fascination with the festival was purely a relic of the past, and conceivably my friends are unshielded from the truth of the modern event: Coachella is falling off.
Will Coachella ever be what it once was? With the 2025 festival recently taking place, things are starting to look up. While the heat and high prices were certainly prevalent, solid sets from some artists saved the show. Charli xcx’s unofficial headline performance brought her fascinating party-girl, indie sleaze energy to a breathtaking high, aided by guest performances from Troye Sivan, Billie Eilish and Lorde. Bernie Sanders made a surprise cameo before alternative superstar Clario’s set, urging the queer-leaning audience to lead in the fight to combat climate change, protect women’s rights and build an economy that works for all, not just the few. Lady Gaga’s headline performance was one of the best to ever grace the festival, showcasing an intense production value and a usual commitment to the craft of her music. Here, Gaga effortlessly shifted between her mainstream eras, going from 2025’s “Abracadabra” back to 2011’s “Judas.”
Despite this recent rise, will Coachella ever be able to justify its high prices and lousy camping conditions? Probably not. Its place in pop culture, however, is admirable, making it a standard “everybody must do this once” experience with the Gen-Z community. Perhaps once the influencer public stops taking Coachella so seriously, the festival can become wholly fun again. And while I certainly will not be attending any time soon, I hope to make the extensive trek one day. Coachella is not dead, but perhaps there is a saving grace in the future of the festival: As soon as we start focusing on the music experience itself, the polished mirror of mainstream media will succumb to the festival’s original carefree, whimsical roots.