Every April, thousands of people crowd around the festival’s performance stages to dance, camp out and experience the beauty of live music at Coachella.
With every year, a new line up comes out and I have a less enthusiastic expression to come with the announcement.
I used to find excitement seeing the new upcoming artists that appeared on these lists. Names like Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar would’ve brought me excitement, but with the current openers I worry the festival just isn’t what it used to be.
Maybe I am wrong for expecting more from the infamous festival, but for as long as I can remember, I knew the names on those lineups and the ones I didn’t, would be a new musical experience.
Coachella continues to push this mainstream, corporate sponsored algorithmic weekend that just isn’t enjoyable anymore.
People would go to Coachella for the experience, for the messy hair, yesterday’s makeup and feeling free with a newfound love for music. Now, Coachella just forces us to pay hundreds for tickets, outfits and feeling “glamourous” rather than just experiencing the moment.
It’s sad to see such a festival die in its own push for monetary greed, but others see it just as much as anyone.
Coachella hasn’t sold out since 2023, even after changing their ticketing strategies, according to Billboard, leading many of those to go into the pool of resale tickets that cost lower than the face value of a pass.
This isn’t because of “economical changes,” but rather the fact that people are starting to realize that Coachella has lacked in past years. Not only from their lineup, but the company’s alignment to fitting a pop consumer narrative, rather than musical appreciation.
It isn’t just the people that don’t want to come, but performers have been less and less inclined. Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar declined to headline in 2025, according to Bloomberg, as a polite way of saying that they didn’t need the festival to bring them any more monetary success.
Coachella simply is lacking because of its own failures. They don’t have the luxury of booking the same artists over and over due to fans expecting new and unique experiences they can’t find elsewhere.
Built on its reputation of having show-stopping names carry their lineups and headliners, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G just don’t do that in the same way previous lineups have.
These names only seem to try to lure in a broader audience rather than curating a list of names that speak to music lovers.
Even with the first Latina, Karol G, to be listed as a headliner, it is genuinely impressive how Coachella still made the rest of the lineup fall short.
Not only that, but Coachella has been seen attempting to bridge the gap between its go-ers with names like Ethel Cain and Moby on night one, or Alex G and Geese, but they still failed to impress me with the countless names on their posters.
The culture has become a monetary transaction, not meant for goers or even the artists performing, it feels useless.
Other festivals now take the money of young festival-goers as they have appealed louder to them, than anything Coachella has done within the past years.
Coachella needs to understand that sometimes “ground-breaking” changes aren’t simply new names on a lineup or changing their poster designs, but an experience that is meant to be filled with unforgettable moments.
Whether it’s bringing back artists that genuinely created a sense of musical engagement or cutting out the expensive new aesthetics that tie into Coachella culture, something can be done about the new wave that comes with these recent festivals.
