The 2024 Coachella headliners’ official list has been released with stars such as Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator, and Doja Cat leading the mix. There are also a number of other artists lined up to perform at this festival such as Lil Uzi Vert, J Balvin, and many up-and-coming artists. These include Reneé Rapp - the star of the new Mean Girls reboot, Tyla - whose hit song “Water” is trending on TikTok, and Sabrina Carpenter who was a Disney child actor, but has become notoriously more popular through social media, specifically TikTok.
Coachella is one of the most well-known festivals starting back in 1999, featuring some of the most popular artists of the time. In 2023, the line-up consisted of artist such as Blackpink, Frank Ocean, and Bad Bunny. The event last year drew in around 500,000 people. During the two weekends, this had doubled compared to the previous year 2022. Coachella tends to spread out over two weekends in April and the event usually takes place in Indio, California. This year, the dates are April 12 to April 21.
Despite being one of the biggest and most known musical events of the year, it doesn’t come without its issues. In 2023, Frank Ocean was an hour late for his performance on one Sunday, leaving many fans disappointed as many argued that the energy and the vibes Frank Ocean brought to the show were low. The reason for the delay was the production of an ice rink. During his performance, Frank Ocean was to have his dancers skating on an ice rink. However, on Sunday afternoon, the idea was changed and the staged had to be deconstructed and the ice had to be melted.
The delay left many feeling like there would be no closing performance. This again happened in 2022 when Kanye West pulled out of his Coachella performance whilst being scheduled to play the closing night of the festival.
Mishaps aside, this is one of the most famous events of the year which many celebrities attend every year, even if they are not on stage. However, in recent years many are arguing that Coachella is becoming very influencer-centred. Coachella used to have many celebrities attending these events - from Kendall and Kylie Jenner to Vanessa Hudgens who has attended Coachella around ten times.
In recent years, this has changed with an influx of social media influencers, specifically from TikTok, turning up to the event which has been labelled the ‘IT place’ for influencers. Last year, there were also an incident when one TikTok star, Loren Gray, stated that some influencers do not actually attended Coachella, regardless of what their social media shows. Loren Gray stated that influencers tend to rent out a hotel, film their TikTok videos, and take pictures in the desert before heading home.
However, others view the influencers visits as exciting and enjoy watching their videos and seeing which social media influencers attend the event. For example, Alix Earle, who has rose to fame on TikTok, documented her outfits and performances on each day of Coachella and then shared videos of her attending the events and after parties with her fans.