Diverse Coachella

Coachella starts to have more inclusion in its lineup

Rosie Towler towleros000@hsestudents.org

The Coachella line-up was announced on Jan. 10 for its 2023 festival in April. is year’s headliners include Frank Ocean, Blackpink and Bad Bunny, all of which are artists of color, making headlines and sparking discussions about diversity at a wellknown event.

“ ey are doing a good job at diversifying their lineup,” senior Sebastian Calejandro said, “you can’t expect everything to change overnight that’s unrealistic.” e diversity in the list of artists is not just about the headliners this year. ere are many non-white sub headliners this year as well: Artists like Becky- G, Labrinth, Dominic Fike, Jackson Wang and many more recognizable names. e artist list is made up of many Hispanic, Asian and Black artists this year. ey are making history this year where Blackpink will be the rst Asian headliner and Bad Bunny being the rst Hispanic headliner as well.

“ e lineup this year is one of the best, especially because they have a lot of artists who do produce good music but need more recognition,” senior Zebee Villigran said.

“I’m not a bad bunny listener but… I’m extremely proud of him and the fame he has brought to our beautiful island.” Calejandro said.“I’m really excited for Blackpink, Rosalia and DPR Ian as they are in my top ve favorite artists. I’ll de nitely be keeping up with them”

Last year, there was only one person of color as a headliner, that person of color being Kanye. In 2021, there was, again, only one person of color headlining.

“By adding di erent types [of music], you attract more crowds and get more people involved,” Buonaiuto said.

In the year 2020, Coachella was very close to having an all non-white main lineup where it was planned to have headliners like Ocean, Travis Scott, and Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against Machine, all of which are also artists of color. Unfortunately, the festival was canceled due to COVID that year. Some are starting to believe Coachella adding diversity is just to give people what they want instead of having a change of heart.

“ ey’re doing it to t the new standard,” Calejandro said, “Everyone wants to be diverse in fear of being canceled but at the same time as more [people of color] artists get more popular they’re going to have to give the people what they want.”

For many followers of Coachella, having a diverse headliner list is a step in the right direction for the event. For many kids and adults, seeing a person who is similar to them in terms of ethnicity and culture on a big stage could get them to be excited about the future of artists of color.

“It is a great step forward in music,” Calejandro said. “It is good to see di erent identities perform and the culture they bring with their music.”