Deep in the Colorado Desert stands Coachella Valley, a place where many celebrities, artists, influencers, and other young adults gather to make a name for themselves or experience a festival bubble of music, dance, and art for a weekend.
According to The Brown Daily Herald, “While the long list of festival-goers includes several A-list celebrities and influencers — such as Kylie Jenner, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber — around 125,000 people attend each day.”
The Coachella 2025 lineup features headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone, and Travis Scott. Other notable performers include Missy Elliott, Charli XCX, The Original Misfits, Megan Thee Stallion, Zedd, Cynthia Erivo, and Benson Boone.
“I really liked the Coachella performances, I feel like the artists do well every year,” freshman Hollyn Gerald said. “There were just so many revivals of artists like Clairo and Lady Gaga.”
Numerous events took place throughout this festival, making this year’s Coachella in particular more interesting and memorable than those in the past. While these artists rocked the stage, many of their fans who could not attend the show watched their favorite artists perform from home on various media platforms such as TikTok or YouTube. A recurring theme with the response to the festival typically surrounds the underwhelming crowd presence in the face of allusions to other historically significant events in pop culture.
One of many noteworthy moments during the opening weekend of Coachella took place during Benson Boone’s performance of the British rock band Queen’s hit single, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Boone brought out a surprise guest during his performance: Queen’s lead guitarist, Brian May. Fans of the artist on TikTok claimed that Boone’s crowd either didn’t know who May was, or didn’t realize how big of a deal this factor of the performance poses. Nevertheless, attendees who did realize the significance of this interaction came to appreciate its cultural impact.
“A lot of the features were good, especially Benson Boone’s performance when he brought out the guitarist of Queen,” Reeves said. “That was a really historical moment for music.”
Another monumental event from Coachella was Cynthia Erivo’s performance of Prince’s 1984 classic, “Purple Rain.” Erivo’s voice in this cover transformed her stage presence into a moving rendition of Prince himself, and caught many of the audience’s eyes; even though, some of the crowd’s reactions did not reflect the energy of this historical moment.
“I’m more disappointed about the crowd’s reaction to seeing some of the artists,” Reeves said. “I don’t think they grasped the whole music aspect of it, more of a fashion type.”
