Coachella: A Land of Protests?

Let them eat cake… At Coachella. Where flower crowns and political chants clash, and influencers sip branded cocktails as Bernie Sanders takes the stage. This year’s desert spectacle wasn’t just about the music—it flirted with revolution, questioned who’s really listening, and left us wondering if protest can survive in a VIP wristband world.

Charli XCX photographed by Myles Hendrik via PAPER Magazine © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Politically charged chants and reminders of the downfall of basic human rights recognition in modern world democracies at an influencers-filled festival? You can play around with it as much as you want, but the carefree-ness of Brat Summer, unfortunately, is so 2024, and it seems that Coachella Valley Festival Administration shily tried to remind that to its audience. 

The renowned California desert music festival took off on April 11th with a three-day lineup that looks like a cowardly attempt to make everyone happy, with acts spanning genres and generations— yes, I’m talking about you, Yo Gabba Gabba and the LA Philharmonic, and I’m going to take action to understand why no one was moshing during both of your sets. 

Space was left in the lineup for both music charts' top artists, melancholic band reunions for both young and old souls,  and highly anticipated artists' collabs that every year people look out for as if waiting for the latest superhero cameo in a Marvel Movie. But I’m sure no one was waiting for Bernie Sanders, the American Democratic senator of Vermont and political activist, opening and introducing Clairo’s act with a speech that drew attention to climate change, reproductive health, workers' rights, the worrying status of the current American presidential administration, and the power that the younger generations walking the synthetic grass field of the festival have in making a change.

Mr. Sanders hasn’t been the lone representative of political discontent at Coachella either. Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers vocalised her support for trans, gay, black and immigrant people, and those affected by the war in Ukraine and Palestine. Nicolas Jaar brought on stage a lengthy speech comparing the genocides towards Natives across America with the ongoing one in Palestine. Green Day did the same by changing parts of their sadly always current political hymns during their headlining set. This was the cause of a fan war between theirs and Charli XCX’s, after she wore a “Miss Should Be Headliner” sash at her after party, and some deemed the California-native punk rock band undeserving of the role—but were they though? 

Shouldn’t it be praised that someone on a festival’s stage, which can count a daily average attendance of more than 100,000 people and hundreds of thousands of viewers on the YouTube livestreams of the festival, uses their presence to denounce world injustices? 

But even with loud protesters on stage, were there ears willing to listen?

Coachella is the festival of influencers running amok between brands’ curated experiences in fancy stands in the “desert”, surrounded by golf clubs and resorts. With General Admission and VIP tickets for one weekend reaching even $1000, you can’t imagine social justice activists and low-income attendees being among them. Nonetheless, data from this year’s festival crowd might not prove the contrary (by a long shot), but it does show the presence of someone capable of hearing and elaborating the messages that many of the performers had to scream into their microphones.

In fact, for the 2025 edition, more than 60% of the attendees used a payment plan to afford access to the festival grounds. I’m in no mood to become a data analyst, but what does this show? Fewer riches in sight to attend the most FOMO-inducing festival of the United States? More people from the middle class who cannot afford to spend half of their rent on a music festival, but still value music and the arts? I really don’t know, because it doesn’t explain Benson Boone’s wrath over his crowd’s lack of acknowledgement of Brian May taking the stage to play “Bohemian Rhapsody” with him. 

So, even though not all hope is lost, considering the millions of viewers all over the world that experience the festival from their screens (surely with a better view of those at the back of the Main Stage field), there’s still one weekend left to see if Coachella can try to shake off the shallowness allegations. And Kneecap, the Northern Ireland hip-hop trio associated with Irish republicanism, have promised a challenging comeback for their second weekend after the live stream of their set was conveniently cut while chanting in support of Palestine and against Margaret Thatcher— so we’ll see which ears will be there to listen.