Coachella: A Study on How Influencers Ruin Everything, by Katie Whitehead

When I was a young teenager, it was my dream to go to Coachella. I spent hours in class fantasizing about the outfit I was going to wear and the tumblr-coded pictures I was going to take in front of the ferris wheel.

You wouldn’t understand unless you were an adolescent in 2016, but Coachella was far more than just a festival. It was a place of joy, happiness, and colorful bohemian outfits. It was iconic for its overaccessorizing jewelry, flower crowns, cat ears and peace sign chains. Celebrities like the Coachella Queen Vanessa Hudgens were known to attend and genuinely hang out with the regular crowd. Not to mention, ALL-STAR level music lineups with headliners like Radiohead, Bjork, and Depeche Mode. And of course, who could forget the infamous Daft Punk Coachella performance of 2006? It was the perfect music festival, and I couldn’t wait until I was finally an adult to experience this magic for myself. 

But now, as an adult, I can confidently say that I wouldn’t touch Coachella with a ten foot pole. Why? Because the Coachella of today is no longer the magical place that it once was. It has been ruined by modern day corporate greed and rich influencers; which is ironic considering it goes against everything that Coachella once stood for.

When Coachella first started, it was marketed as a festival for the people. In fact, Coachella was originally started by the band Pearl Jam as a way to protest against Ticketmaster for their insanely high ticket prices. Although Pearl Jam didn’t want to collaborate with Ticketmaster, they still wanted to perform for their fans, leading them to book an area in a part of the California desert called “Coachella Valley” and perform their own concert. The success of the protest performance caught the attention of Goldenvoice, a punk rock music production company that was also against Ticketmaster. Because Goldenvoice was still a small production company who couldn’t compete with Ticketmaster, they came up with the idea to host several bands on stage in one day in the format of a festival. They hoped that the amount of people who came would be “profitable” for the label. From there, Coachella was born. 

In 1999, the first ever Coachella took place with tickets costing only $50 a person to attend, as the label wanted it to be affordable.. Not only was it affordable, but it also allowed people to see all-star artists like Beck, Morissey, Rage Against The Machine and Tool all in two days.

Coachella's popularity continued to skyrocket from there. In 2001, Coachella split their festival up into three days and their main stage was broken up into three separate stages. In addition to including artists from the punk rock scene; Coachella decided to expand the festival to include artists from all different genres to make sure each person who attended Coachella could go to see a musical artist that they loved. Although Coachella was adding all of these new things, they still wanted to keep prices affordable for everyone. To do this, Goldenvoice decided to add a second music festival called Stagecoach, which was specifically dedicated to country music. The addition of Stagecoach allowed Coachella to earn back any lost profits and Goldenvoice was able to continue to keep the tickets at an affordable price.

Coachella’s golden age of popularity began in 2012 thanks to Dr. Dre’s headlining performance, which featured a hologram of the late rapper Tupac. This hologram-style performance was extremely difficult to execute at the time, which captivated many and led to a huge spike in Google searches related to Coachella. In a period where social media was nonexistent, Google was the only way for people to find out what was going on in the world without being there. In addition to the Tupac hologram, the inclusion of EDM acts such as Avicii and Swedish House Mafia caused a fluctuation in the popularity of Coachella in the EDM scene

It seemed to Goldenvoice that Coachella’s popularity was going to continue to peak—but after a peak comes a crash and burn. For Coachella, the introduction of social media was its ultimate demise. 

In late 2012, social media app Instagram rose to popularity after being acquired by Facebook and Android, gaining over 80 million users. With the rise of Instagram came a new way of obtaining information that had never been done before. Instead of having to browse the internet for the latest updates, Instagram users could scroll through their feed and find hoards of pop culture through a swipe of their finger. 

On Instagram, Coachella became accessible to an even larger number of people, increasing its popularity, not just with ordinary fans, but with celebrities as well. Vanessa Hudgens may have made her Coachella debut in 2006, but it wasn’t until the rise of Instagram that her  Coachella outfits gained traction. Celebrities such as Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Julia Fox and Paris Hilton have also made appearances—these celebrity encounters were a game changer for the festival. . 

With the rise of celebrity sightings came a new movement of Coachella consumption. From there, the aestheticization of Coachella began. Users on Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr dreamed of attending Coachella and taking pictures in front of all the iconic locations. Because of this newfound popularity, Coachella knew they needed to weed people out, and by 2017, general admission tickets officially cost $399. This was groundbreaking for Coachella because it was the first time they eliminated the affordability aspect of the festival. This is when the festival turned from a protest against Ticketmaster’s greed, into a place of profit itself.

In addition to traditional celebrities attending Coachella, in 2019, social media influencers also started attending. Social media influencers were the hottest form of social currency on Instagram. They persuaded people to buy all of the hottest new trends and served as sponsors for many corporate brands. In the world of Coachella, an influencer attending also promoted the festival to all of their followers and created new traction. The rise of influencer popularity at Coachella was large in part due to social media beauty influencer James Charles. Fans of James Charles took note of his iconic outfits, with some waiting for Coachella to happen just to see what outfit he’d pick. Charles became the beacon for influencer Coachella traction, and more influencers—and wannabe influencers—followed in his footsteps.

Coachella at this point is no longer the Coachella it once was. It’s a brand deal, and its lineup reflects that. It went from headlining the aforementioned greats such as Radiohead, Kanye West, Rage Against the Machine, and Tame Impala, to now—whatever song is trending on TikTok. While this year's headliners are pretty good, Justin Bieber, Karol G, and Sabrina Carpenter are nowhere near equal to the artists that came before them. Even supporting artists like Sexyy Red, Addison Rae, Sombr, and Laufey have all gained traction purely because of TikTok. It’s not the multi-genre Coachella that was once advertised. It is now TikTok music.  

In addition to the music changing, headliners that people would go crazy for back in the day are getting minimal reaction now, as crowds don’t understand the significance of their music. In Coachella 2025, singer Benson Boone performed Bohemian Rhapsody with the guitarist for Queen Brian May. However, many fans watching via online streaming platforms were disappointed when this iconic moment got no reaction from the crowd, with older fans in social media comments saying that they would’ve gone crazy if they witnessed that. In 2024, Damon Albarn, lead singer of British Pop band Blur, was extremely frustrated with the lack of reaction of the crowd. During the band's song “Girls & Boys”, Albarn tried to leave the fans in a chant but not one fan even chanted back to him, causing him to awkwardly laugh and say “You’re never seeing us again”. Blur has not been back to Coachella since. 

Normal people cannot afford to attend Coachella anymore due to the prices. The Coachella lineups since 2022 have been mediocre with festivals like Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, All Things Go, and Lollapalooza blowing it out of the water. No one dances anymore because everyone is there for branding. The fashion is gone. The good vibes are gone. The festival for the people is gone.

That is how influencers ruin everything.