Weekend 1 Recap Of Coachella 2026: Is 2016 So Back?

With the nostalgia for 2016 inspiring a wave of people to attempt to revive this era, it’s no wonder that festival-goers are recreating outfits from what is considered by many to be the peak of Coachella. Although the festival has long been a source of online content, the commodification of the Coachella experience makes the restoration of true festival culture impossible. To understand the weight of the transformation of Coachella, let’s go back to the beginning.

Coachella was arguably born from a similar situation that we find ourselves in now. In 1999, a new generation sought to replicate ‘69’s Woodstock—a peaceful site for a counterculture, anti-war and anti-establishment movement that birthed social change and an ideal for future music festivals—but Woodstock ‘99 ended in violence and chaos. In its wake, Coachella originated as a grassroots festival that cost $50 a day and featured alternative artists.

Over the years, Coachella has evolved into the exact opposite of what it once stood for. Now, the festival is less about music and more about fashion and content creation. Major brands send influencers to the festival to promote their products, like makeup and clothes, and film in creator houses and at exclusive influencer-only events. On the surface, the traditional communal shower and camping in the desert experience seems to be lost, but this merely represents the divide between influencers and everyone else in attendance.

If your feed has been taken over by ‘Get Ready With Me’ videos and tours of mansions, you might have missed what has actually happened over the first weekend of Coachella. So, here is a breakdown of some highlights of the music festival:

First, the headliners. Sabrina Carpenter took the main stage on Friday, kicking off the festival with an extravagant Hollywood-inspired set, featuring a “Sabrinawood” sign. Throughout her performance, she referenced many classic films and invited a few guests to portray various characters, including Will Ferrell as an electrician (read more about the set here). All in all, the whole thing was so over-the-top that it can only be described in one word: camp. 

However, Carpenter did generate some controversy with her performance when she called a fan’s zaghrouta—a type of call in Arab culture—”weird”. If you watch the full clip, it’s obvious she was trying to be funny, but her response of “Is this Burning Man?” felt very misguided given the cultural significance of music festivals. She did later apologize for her comments, so hopefully this was a lesson learned.

Justin Bieber performed his much-anticipated set on Saturday, and it was…interesting. Bieber projected his laptop screen and played various songs and memes from YouTube. To some, this small-scale set was iconic, but to me, it showed once again what we already know: female popstars are held to a higher standard than male popstars (read more about that here). I’ll leave it at that. 

On Sunday, Karol G became the first Latina to headline Coachella. In the current American political climate, it is more important now than ever to uplift Latinx voices. During her set, the Colombian artist said, “before me there were so many great Latino artists, legendary Latino artists, that gave me the opportunity to be here tonight. So this is not just about me, this is about my Latina community, this is about my people.”

Karol G reportedly spent three times the amount she was paid on production costs, and, given the spectacle, it’s believable. She honored Latin American culture throughout the set, including featuring a female mariachi band and other Latino artists, dancing to Daddy Yankee’s reggaetón hit “Rompe,” and, of course, singing in her native tongue. It is a wonder what viewers missed out on when she cut her performance short due to Coachella’s curfew. 

Other notable moments during the weekend revolved around the various surprise guests (there are too many to mention). Major Lazer brought out M.I.A, JT during Little Simz, Lizzo at Sexyy Redd, PinkPantheress shared the stage with producer The Dare and actor Tyriq Withers, Maddie Ziegler danced with Addison Rae, and Katseye sang with fictional group HUNTR/X from Kpop Demon Hunters (notably absent from the stage was Manon, although fans spotted her in attendance), and so on.

I, for one, am not jealous of the desert heat and extreme crowds, but Coachella boasts some of the biggest performances in the music industry currently, so I will tune in from home. Already, there is a new weekend of Coachella, and surely more highlights to take note of.

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