Every April, artists perform at the music festival Coachella. Around 125,000 people attend each weekend, and 650,000 attend the entire festival. At Coachella this year, the headliners were Green Day, Lady Gaga, and Post Malone, but Coachella started in early October 1999. The headliners were Beck and Rage Against the Machine, and tickets cost $50 daily, which is way less than today. However, Coachella doesn’t take place directly in the Coachella Valley. It is held in Indio, California, near Coachella Valley. According to the city’s website, the word Coachella was a typo from the word Conchella, which means little shell in Spanish.
Coachella was organized by Paul Tollett’s company, GoldenVoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. Paul’s company helped bands like Pearl Jam book venues during its boycott of Ticketmaster. In its first year, people didn’t come because of the lack of sponsors. Paul revealed that Coachella’s first year cost the company $750,000. Coachella stopped in 2000 and came back in 2001. 2004 was the first year that Coachella’s tickets sold out, with a crowd of 120,000 to see headliners like Radiohead and The Cure. In 2010, Coachella added its three-day passes, and in 2012, they increased the capacity from 35,000 people to 125,000 people in 2017. Coachella has eight main stages where artists perform: Coachella Stage, Outdoor Stage, Sahara Tent, Yuma Tent, Mojave Tent, Do Lab, Gobi Tent, and the Sonora Tent.
Coachella 2025 had artists of different genres and on different popularity scales. With the music industry changing, it wasn’t surprising to see other artists with different cultural or genre backgrounds. Influencers and A-list celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber, and Julia Fox were spotted going to Coachella this year, as well as in previous years they’ve been. According to AEG, 73% of people who went to Coachella in 2025 were between 18 and 35. Some people who went this year spent 12 hours waiting to be let into the campgrounds.
The first day of the weekend, Lady Gaga performed for two hours of her more popular songs like Paparazzi, Born This Way, and Judas. Although the headliner for this day was Lady Gaga, other talented and popular artists played, like Missy Elliott, Lisa, Tyla, and GloRilla. The next day, on Saturday, the main headliner was Green Day. They played songs like American Idiot, Basket Case, Godd Riddance, and When I Come Around. Green Day played from 9:05 pm to 10:45 pm, which is about 80 minutes. The other artists that performed this day were Charlie XCX, Enhypen, Clairo, and Yo Gabba Gabba. On the next day, the last day of the weekend, on Sunday, the headliner is Post Malone. He played the country version of his songs Sunflower, Circles, Congratulations, and Lemon Tree. His performance lasted about 90 minutes altogether. The other artists that performed that day were Megan Thee Stallion, Beabadoobee, XG, and Ty Dolla $ign. All of these artists brought amazing performances to Coachella and truly showed what they are capable of.
Coachella is now known as a celebration of music, art, and culture. It features not only popular artists but also artists who try to expand themselves and their art.
