I have attended Coachella every year since its return post-COVID. Always Weekend 1. Never looked back.

This year I did both. And I will never think about this festival the same way again.

Not because the lineups were different — they weren't. But because the two weekends felt like two entirely different events, shaped almost entirely by the people around me rather than what was happening on stage. That's the Coachella nobody really talks about. The crowd is the experience, for better or worse.

Weekend 1: The Circus Has Come to Town (And That's Fine)

Weekend 1 is exactly what you think it is. Large crowds, phones in the air, influencers and celebrities floating through like they're on a very expensive movie set. The energy is electric and chaotic and slightly overwhelming, and everyone who acts annoyed by it knew exactly what they were walking into.

My take? Lean into it. Weekend 1 is the best networking event in the music industry dressed up as a festival. The people you meet at the Do Lab or waiting in line to grab food are worth the price of admission alone. I treated it that way and came away with conversations I couldn't have had anywhere else.

And when the main festival wrapped each night, I headed out to Framework in the Desert — a 5th anniversary celebration happening nearby that deserves its own mention. Friday brought Disclosure on a DJ set and Kettama b2b Prospa. Sunday closed with Armin Van Buuren, Marlon Hoffstadt, and Chloe Caillet. If you only went to Coachella and called it a night, you missed half the weekend.

Weekend 2: The Festival Underneath the Festival

Weekend 2 was quieter. Less showy. The crowd was locked in on the music in a way that Weekend 1 rarely allows for. And I noticed something I wasn't expecting — families. Strollers. Kids wearing ear protection, bobbing along next to their parents. There's something genuinely cool about that. Coachella is an all-ages festival, and Weekend 2 reminds you of it. It felt more like a community and less like a spectacle.

Both weekends have their place. Neither is wrong. They're just different events wearing the same wristband.

The Headliners, Honestly

Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G is a lineup that asks you to stretch. Bieber is millennial-coded nostalgia — we watched him grow up in real time, for better or worse, and there's something unexpectedly emotional about seeing him back on a stage like this. Karol G is a global cultural force who has transcended genre entirely at this point. And Sabrina Carpenter delivered the kind of pop performance that reminds you why pop music exists.

Then there's Anyma. His Friday Weekend 1 set was cancelled due to high winds, which was genuinely devastating for anyone who had planned their night around it. Weekend 2 delivered the set, and it was good — but it's hard to compete with what he's built at the Sphere. That residency set a production standard that almost nothing in a festival setting can match, and Coachella was no exception. No fault of his. Just a different context.

The Stages: A Millennial's Guide

The Sahara is where the mainstream lives. It's massive, it's loud, and it rewards the artists who can command that kind of scale. The Yuma is something else entirely — a dark, enclosed tent built for people who actually came to dance. No natural light, no distractions, no casual observers. If the Sahara is the festival, the Yuma is the afterparty. Quasar is the one that doesn't get talked about enough — a stage built for extended EDM sets where artists actually have room to take you somewhere. No rush, no abbreviated festival slots. Just time. And the Do Lab sits somewhere in between all of it — a curated, spontaneous space where the best surprises tend to happen.

Understanding those four stages is understanding Coachella's EDM ecosystem.

My Top Sets of 2026

Max Styler — Yuma Tent, Both Weekends - Max Styler played the Yuma both weekends and both times delivered exactly what that floor demands. Precise, relentless, and built for people who showed up to move.

Girl Math — Sahara Stage - VNSSA and NALA are both established names in their own right. Together as Girl Math, they're greater than the sum of their parts — and having seen them before, their Coachella debut only confirmed it. High energy, built for big stages, and criminally given an early slot. When they get a prime time booking, and they will, it's going to be a moment.

Madeon — Quasar Stage, Sunset Weekend 2 - A sunset Madeon set in the desert is almost an unfair advantage. For millennials who grew up on his music, this one hit differently. The timing was perfect and the crowd knew every word.

Adriatique b2b Cloonee — Do Lab, Weekend 2 - Nobody saw this coming. Three artists — Adriatique is a duo, Cloonee makes it a trio — who have no business sounding that good together proceeded to sound exactly that good together. Weekend 2 exclusive, and the people on that floor knew they were witnessing something.

Bunt. — Sahara Stage, Both Weekends - High energy, cross-genre, and completely in command of a stage that eats smaller acts alive. Bunt. has been putting in the work for years — Coachella 2026 just felt like the moment the rest of the world finally caught up.

Subtronics — Sahara Stage, Both Weekends - The Sahara overflowed both weekends. Reports put attendance at his Weekend 1 set at 100,000 people — making it one of the most attended sets in Coachella history. If you know, you know. If you don't — 100,000 people are trying to tell you something.

Kaskade — Weekend 2 Was Better, and Here's Why - Kaskade is a legend and his set was great both weekends. But Weekend 2 was on another level. The crowd was more dialed in, and you could visibly see Ryan feeding off of that energy from the floor. He gave it back tenfold. A great reminder that the best sets are always a two-way conversation.

Final Thought

I came to Coachella this year expecting to just love it twice. What I didn't expect was to walk away with two completely different stories. That's the magic of this festival — it's bigger than any one experience, and somehow it still manages to feel personal.

It is also, without question, the best multi-genre music festival on the planet. The range of what's on offer across those stages is staggering. You would have to be genuinely stubborn to not find something that moves you.

See you in the desert in 2027.