Coachella 2023: Review from a UT student

This past weekend, I crossed something off my bucket list that I’ve wanted to do for years. I flew across the country from Tennessee to Palm Springs, California and attended my first Coachella Music Festival.

I saw dozens of artists and felt that the lineup this year was very diverse. Latin artists, K-pop bands, alternative musicians and even artists who have taken a performing hiatus, all gathered to the desert hub for a backto-back weekend performance.

As someone who mostly listens to rap and hip-hop, there weren’t a ton of my favorite artists going, but I also figured it would be a good time to explore some new genres and attend performances of people I wouldn’t normally listen to.

On Friday, the first day of the festival, artist Bad Bunny was headlining. Before heading to his set, I saw artists Blink-182, Metro Boomin, YungBlood and Two Friends. To start the day off, I headed to the alternative artist YungBlood. He has several songs with popular artist Machine Gun Kelly, and is known for breaking gender role norms. I’m familiar with a lot of his music, but sadly he didn’t do many of his well-known songs. The 45-minute set consisted of songs across his latest albums but lacked his best-selling tracks. I was a bit underwhelmed to say the least.

Next up, I saw Blink-182 who added a surprise performance at the last minute. They performed for over an hour and sang classics like “All The Small Things” and “I Miss You.” They gathered quite the crowd and gave a performance even those unfamiliar with the band could enjoy. “Two Friends,” a DJ duo, gave a crowd-jumping performance and even brought out pop singer Bebe Rexha. This was one of the most fun shows of the weekend and attracted tens of thousands of festival goers.

Up next and my favorite set of the night, I headed to Metro Boomin. The rap producer had a movie-like introduction, props galore and plenty of backup dancers. What really set him apart from the rest however, was that he brought out five surprise artists during his set. Future, Don Toliver, The Weeknd, 21 Savage and Diddy all came out during Boomin’s performance which made headlines nationwide. I got to see six of my favorite artists rather than just the one I was expecting, and I will remember the performance forever.

Finally, to end the night, I went to headliner Bad Bunny. I don’t speak Spanish and don’t know many of his songs, but he gave one hell of a performance. His set was expected to be 45 minutes, but he played for over two hours and brought out other Latin artists and even Post Malone. The singer spoke about Latin music culture and the effect it’s had on him as well – featuring salsa dancers, Latin clothing and props. It was a phenomenal performance and experience.

Saturday and Sunday, I jumped around different performances both at the festival and other events around Palm Springs. I saw one of my favorite pop singers Renee Rapp at a local hotel, Diplo at a private party and of course some more amazing artists at the festival. Out of all the performances I saw Saturday, including The Kid Laroi and headliners BLACKPINK, Labrinth was my favorite. The soul/R&B artist gave a moving performance and even brought out pop legend Billie Eilish for a duet of their new song. His performance had different levels, dynamics and lights which brought the performance to life even more.

Sunday was the most anticipated day due to Frank Ocean’s first performance in years. People were camped out for his 10:05 p.m. set starting at 9 a.m., with news coverage all day. I, too, lined up extremely early and missed several other artists I wanted to see to ensure I had a good spot for Ocean. Soon after his set started, I realized all my prep wasn’t worth it. Sadly, the most hyped-up performance of the weekend didn’t live up to its expectations at all.

Ocean came on over an hour late and sat on the gigantic stage in a spot that was very difficult for the crowd to see. He barely moved and sang very few popular songs. Rather than performing some of his most famous tunes, he DJ’d them in a mashup and showed footage of a security guard dancing, rather than singing them himself and having the camera focus on his performance.

After barely giving any type of performance, an hour into his set he stated it was past curfew and that was the end of the show. The stage immediately went dark but a majority of fans including myself figured he must be kidding or that some sort of encore would follow. To my shock and dismay, he did not return to the stage and staff forced us to leave the venue. I was so frustrated that one of my favorite artists, and someone I waited all day to see, didn’t even care about giving a performance. It was beyond disappointing and definitely not a great way to end the weekend.

Although Frank Ocean’s performance was quite the disappointment, I don’t regret attending Coachella one bit. It was amazing being around so many other music lovers, seeing all the fashion, eating amazing food and experiencing new genres. It was one of the best weekends of my life, and I’m so grateful for having the opportunity to go.