Entertainment
A Coachella 2026 Recap
Dutch influencer Joann van den Herik went viral this week after she called Coachella the “influencer Olympics” on TikTok, describing her experience of the festival as one less about the music and more about creators fighting to get the best angles while staring at their phones. She is not wrong. One week into the 25th anniversary edition of Coachella and it’s clear that the creator economy ran the whole thing. Here’s what happened and what to expect this weekend.
The most significant creator moment of the weekend belonged to Addison Rae, who played the main Coachella Stage on Saturday evening in what was her first full-length solo set at the festival. Rae, who started as a TikTok creator before pivoting to music, performed ahead of headliner Justin Bieber and delivered what she called “The Fame and Glory Show,” a reworked version of her recent tour. The set opened with “Diet Pepsi” and built toward a standout “Aquamarine” performance alongside Maddie Ziegler. Rae took a moment to address years of skepticism about her transition from social media to pop music, telling the crowd that her supporters should know she loves them, and insulting her detractors. She returns for weekend two on April 18.
One of Coachella’s most significant events from the first week of 2026 was Justin Bieber’s contentious, YouTube-themed performance. With a laptop, a microphone, and the occasional guitarist, Bieber spent part of his set projecting his own videos onto a big screen and singing along-side them. Bieber’s stripped-down show was him having fun with his own viral moments and concerns for his well-being after some publicized antics, tour cancellations and health concerns. Leaked footage of rehearsals for Bieber’s performance caused resold ticket prices for Coachella to spike, with prices peaking at $4,000 for tickets that originally cost $650, as Bieber is scheduled to perform again this Saturday.
Meanwhile, high profile Twitch streamer Lacy (Nick Fosco) brought his camera to Coachella over the weekend. The 23-year-old, who is ranked among Twitch’s top 15 streamers in 2026, has been on a collision course with live event restrictions for weeks. In late March, Lacy and fellow streamer Sketch were ejected from a courtside seat at the NCAA March Madness Elite Eight game between Iowa and Illinois after security caught them livestreaming the game, which violates the NCAA’s broadcast rights agreements. The tension between streamers who want to broadcast everything and rights holders who have paid billions for exclusivity is becoming one of the defining conflicts in live entertainment. At Coachella, where YouTube holds the official livestream rights across seven stages, that tension is even more pronounced. Creators attending the festival can post clips and vlogs, but live broadcasting of performances runs into legal territory fast, and the festival is known for being stringent with limiting unofficial live-streamed and clipped videos.
Off the stage, the influencer economy was operating at full capacity. Content creator Sam Mintesnot documented her attempt to get into the festival without a ticket, posting across her platforms in hopes of scoring a brand invitation. It worked. YouTube invited her two days before the festival started. That kind of hustle is now a recognized pathway into Coachella for creators who do not have the budget for passes that start at $820 for a single day on resale. In another example, Sydney Morgan, a creator known for special effects makeup, bought her own ticket and traveled to Indio with a group of fellow creators, renting an Airbnb selected specifically for how it would look on camera and built a filming itinerary around the group’s content schedules. They arrived a full day before the music started so they could shoot.
YouTube leaned hard into the creator angle this year. The platform’s “Watch With” feature returned, letting creators provide live commentary and reactions alongside the official Coachella livestream from their own channels. The company also hosted creators at its Backstage Studio on the festival grounds, where influencers like Alix Earle were photographed. Earle, who launched her skin care brand Reale Actives just weeks before the festival, attended multiple brand events and posted outfit content that went viral almost immediately.
The brand activation circuit surrounding Coachella has become its own festival, with brands like Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s Poosh, Neutrogena, TikTok Shop and many other marketplaces and companies hosting events. Reports also surfaced of brands rescinding influencer invitations at the last minute, and multiple creators said their Airbnb bookings were canceled by hosts looking to rebook at higher prices during festival weekend.
Weekend two begins April 17, with the same lineup running a second time. Addison Rae will perform again. The creators will return with fresh outfits and new content plans. And somewhere in the crowd, someone will be livestreaming something they probably should not be.
