Justin Bieber finally got his headlining turn at the festival — and he brought his laptop.
Saturday highlights:
- Review: Justin Bieber (and his laptop) headline Coachella Night 2
- The best photos from the festival
- Our Gen X and Gen Z reporters react to Addison Rae
- Nine Inch Noize’s ghoulish rave
- Sombr’s Smashing Pumpkins’ surprise
- What Coachella looks like from the Goodyear Blimp
What happened Friday: Catch up on Sabrina Carpenter’s headlining set and everything that happened on Day 1.
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Coachella 2026: The best photos from the festival
Music. Art. Fashion. Fun. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival returns to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., for its 25th anniversary, with a sold-out crowd for its twin weekends and millions of people watching the livestream from home.
Our team is in the field to capture what it’s really like to be at Coachella, from the biggest stars on stage to the only-at-the-festival vibes of the field.
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Justin Bieber (and his laptop) headline Coachella Night 2
So this is how we find out Justin Bieber is a YouTube Premium subscriber.
The 32-year-old teen-pop survivor headlined Coachella on Saturday night, and for roughly half an hour in the middle of his set, what Bieber did was sit behind a laptop and sing along to his old music videos — often an octave down from where he recorded them — as he searched up the songs on YouTube and played them over the festival’s state-of-the-art sound system.
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David Byrne and the art of performance as an experience
More than an hour before Justin Bieber decided to have a YouTube karaoke party to headline Coachella, David Byrne closed out the Outdoor Theatre on Saturday night in stark relief.
Byrne’s set started 25 minutes late and he arrived on stage wearing an orange jumpsuit and holding acoustic guitar. He was soon followed by a dozen or so instrumentalists and backing singers in matching garb for “Everybody Laughs,” a track off his 2025 album “Who Is the Sky?”
After the song, Byrne talked about how he went to Joshua Tree National Park the previous day, accompanied by a photo from the visit.
“Saw a lot of rocks, really nice rocks,” he said before telling a story about a girl he knew in high school who would take LSD near the Yoo-Hoo factory and inspired the Talking Heads song “And She Was.”
The cinematic quality of the multiple musicians in the matching outfits moving around the stage in choreographed precision is nothing new for Byrne. His acclaimed “American Utopia” show, which he brought a version of to Coachella in 2018, had similar elements.
That year, his sunset performance at the same stage was packed. In 2026, Coachella has changed. Like Devo the night before, Byrne didn’t attract nearly the audience he deserved because the main field was packed with people waiting for Bieberchella.
But for those who were wise enough to catch this legend still at the top of his game running through Talking Heads classics such as “This Must Be the Place,” “Houses in Motion,” and “Nothing But Flowers,” it was a lesson in performance as experience. You couldn’t help but be drawn in.
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Our Gen X and Gen Z reporters react to Justin Bieber’s set
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Justin Bieber’s complete Coachella setlist
Justin Bieber’s highly anticipated Coachella headlining set is finally here. Here are all the songs the pop superstar performed.
- “All I Can Take”
- “Speed Demon”
- “First Place”
- “Go Baby”
- “Butterflies”
- “Walking Away”
- “All The Way”
- “405”
- “Too Long”
- “Petting Zoo”
- “I Do”
- “Stay” with special guest the Kid Laroi
- “Things You Do”
- “Glory Voice Memo”
- “Zuma House”
- “Dotted Line”
- “Everything Hallelujah”
- “Baby”
- “Favorite Girl”
- “That Should Be Me”
- “Beauty and a Beat”
- “Never Say Never”
- “Confident”
- “All That Matters”
- “With You” (Chris Brown cover)
- “So Sick” (Ne-Yo cover)
- “Sorry”
- “Where Are U Now”
- “I’m The One”
- “Yukon”
- “Devotion” with special guest Dijon
- “I Think You’re Special” with special guest Tems
- “Essence” with special guests Tems and Wizkid
- “Daisies” with special guest Mk.gee
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It’s kind of a joke that the Strokes are still this good
“I wanna thank you for fulfilling our lifelong dream of opening for Justin Bieber,” Julian Casablancas told the crowd in front of the main stage as the Strokes neared the end of their set Saturday night.
Ninety minutes or so later, JB was indeed due to take over the space. But while Casablancas and his bandmates had control of it, it was theirs: This was an almost laughably strong showing by a band of rascally garage-rock veterans who somehow might sound better now — tighter, punchier, more effortlessly tuneful — than they did a quarter-century ago.
With an upcoming album to hype, the Strokes did their new single “Going Shopping,” a characteristically droll critique of late-capitalist apathy. (“Solidarity can be difficult when you got cool stuff to lose,” Casablancas sings.) But for the most part they stuck to the indelible hits, each as ingeniously structured — and as bitterly romantic — as the last: “Hard to Explain,” “Someday,” “Last Nite,” “New York City Cops.”
“You guys excited about the draft?” Casablancas asked at one point. “I hope to lead one of the Coachella units — the sexiest unit in our proud military.”
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Coachella 2026: Nine Inch Noize revamps industrial rock for a ghoulish rave
Trent Reznor might never escape those ghouls.
No one quite knew what to expect from Saturday’s re-vamped collaboration between veteran industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails and their recent tourmate, the German electro producer Boys Noize. Billed here as Nine Inch Noize, the pairing had experience on stages together, teaming up for the nightly middle third of Nails’ recent Peel It Back tour. That segment of the show largely stripped out the guitars to focus on clubby techno and nasty slashes of synth noise. What would it look like as a whole Sahara Tent set, though?
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During a Coachella sunset, Sombr’s star burns brighter and brings out Billy Corgan
Aside from headlining the main stage, a sunset set at the Outdoor Theatre is one of the most coveted time slots at the festival. If you get it, there’s a built-in Coachella moment ready for the taking.
On Saturday, Sombr delivered with a performance that drew so many fans that they were stretching to the outer edges of the field where the sound bleed from the main stage carried over.
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Our Gen X and Gen Z reporters react to Addison Rae’s set
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Gen X and Gen Z react to Addison Rae’s #Coachella set. The Times’ pop music critic Mikael Wood and video journalist Rebecca Castillo watched the Tiktoker-turned-pop star’s festival set and compared notes.
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Giveon bottles the magic hour
Long Beach’s R&B savant Giveon kept his Coachella stage to a monochrome motif during his sundown set. Black suit, white lights—he didn’t need anything more to bottle the magic hour on Saturday.
An old soul with with a huge, commanding voice, his catalog hovers between the orchestral swoon of pre-rock ballads, the pristine melodies of Anita Baker and the rangy, resilient yearning of his hometown’s soul tradition. Kendrick Lamar and SZA may have formally kicked off the Luther Vandross revival, but Giveon has inherited it, especially on his latest 2025 LP “Beloved.”
Backed by a big, throwback live band, “Lost Me” beautifully papered over a failed relationship with an uncertain young bravado; “Backup Plan” gave his one-of-kind baritone room to roam and plead. He brought out Kehlani for “Folded,” another perfectly regal ballad that revels in a small aperture. But by the time he got to “Heartbreak Anniversary,” his suit was coming off and the mood was positively lusty.
Giveon should be counted among the great SoCal voices, and his Saturday show proved his ambitions for it have no ceiling.
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Bieberchella traffic is extremely Swag-less
Anyone thinking about taking their sweet time (or Avenue 48 or Monroe St) to park at Coachella in anticipation of seeing Justin Bieber tonight...don’t.
Two Times reporters, yours truly included,have been stuck in a sea of Belieber pilgrims for three and a half hours and counting for what would normally be a 15 minute drive to the festival. We’re still nowhere near the parking lot, and they’re re-routing fans away from the main entrance if you’re not in the single turn lane. I haven’t seen a crush of traffic like this since Beyoncé headlined. It’s is a testament to Bieber’s comeback that apparently every single fan is coming at once, but good lord, what a nightmare.
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The band that covered Justin Bieber at Bieber-chella
In the early evening, modern alt-rock darlings Geese had the Gobi Tent overflowing with fans, but there was one song that got people singing along louder than the rest — “2122” with a bit of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” mixed in.
Fans have been camped out at the main stage since gates opened just after 1 p.m. to wait for Bieber, who is expected to go on at 11:25 p.m.
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Fujii Kaze’s sunny R&B set in the Mojave Tent
Coachella always has acts from around the globe on the bill, but in recent years the festival has really celebrated Asian pop music. We saw the debut of Filipino girl group Bini on Friday and in a similar time slot in the Mojave Tent on Saturday was Japanese singer Fujii Kaze.
The set began a few minutes after his scheduled 4:30 start time with Kaze, wearing a loose beige top and very baggy pants, sitting atop a raised bleacher/scaffolding to open the performance with new single “It’s Alright.”
The ‘70s/’80s R&B vibe — with a full backing band — he had going on for other songs early in the set, including “Matsuri” and “Casket Girl,” paired nicely with the sun-soaked afternoon.
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We sent our reporter to see what Coachella looks like from the Goodyear Blimp
We sent our reporters up in the Goodyear Blimp that was flying over the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this weekend. Take a look at a rare glimpse of the festival from the air.
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A visit to Coachella’s coolest rock club, literally, to catch Ecca Vandal
I know my phone says it isn’t as hot as it was yesterday but maybe it was rocking out with Jack White that made us all a little more sweaty.
I booked it over to the Sonora Tent to catch a little bit of Ecca Vandal to confirm that the Sonora Tent still has the vibes of a cool rock club in the middle of the festival. I mean cool both figuratively and literally since the A/C is always blasting.
The blue-haired singer leaped onto the stage — wearing a short poofy dress and tall boots — accompanied by a drummer and a multi-instrumentalist with a lot of flashing lights.
The beginning of her set was leaning on more of her pop crossover songs than the punk vibes that initially drew me to her, but I did catch her do the rocking “Bleed But Never Die” before I needed to move on to catch another set.
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The balloons are flying at Coachella…for now
Yesterday’s wind kept Robert Bose’s famous Balloon Chain grounded but on Saturday afternoon there is one with lots of pink balloons.
However, with the wind expected to pick up this evening I doubt we will see them later tonight unless the forecast changes.
Read more about Bose and how he creates the balloon chain every year and the art at Coachella over the festival’s 25 years.
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Sabrina Carpenter apologizes for reaction to zaghrouta yodel during Coachella set
Sabrina Carpenter posted an apology on X following outcry on social media toward her reaction to an audience member at her headlining set who let out a cheer that many online identified as a zaghrouta.
“My apologies i didn’t see this person with my eyes and couldn’t hear clearly,” she wrote about the festival attendee who let out a cheer during the performance. “My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm and not ill intended. could have handled it better! now i know what a Zaghrouta is!”
During the performance, Carpenter responded to the cheer by speaking directly to the audience. “I think I heard someone yodel. Is that what you’re doing? I don’t like it,” she said.
Carpenter ended her apology by saying, “I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.”
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Jack White kicks off Coachella’s rock-tastic Day 2
I thought Jack White’s opening riffs were a beacon. Then he ended his surprise Mojave Tent set with the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
It will not surprise you that the tent, which attracted an overflow crowd once he played the iconic riff, had people singing along and jumping and pumping their arms in the air to the iconic track that has become a sporting event staple (including for my beloved Baltimore Ravens).
What did surprise me was that the crowd was also ridiculously loud for a sing-along to the Raconteurs’ “Steady As She Goes” a few songs before.
White ended the set by telling the crowd that he was planning to catch Geese and the Strokes today and that music is sacred.
Rock is indeed alive and well at Coachella, especially as the fans kept singing “Seven Nation Army” after White and his band had left the stage and the set was over.
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What it was like to road-trip with David Byrne
David Byrne plays the Outdoor Theatre from 10:20-11:20 p.m. Saturday, April 11. The last time Byrne played Coachella, in 2018, pop music critic Mikael Wood took a road trip with him to San Diego ahead of the festival.
“You must be my ride,” David Byrne said, hopping off his bicycle as he pulled up in front of a West Hollywood hotel. “Want some juice? I didn’t drink any of it — it just spilled while I was riding over.”
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Speakeasy hopping in Street Food Alley
After I forced myself to leave the cool jungly Photo Automatica speakeasy, I walked a few strides to the bar across the street. With a neon cactus sign out front, I was expecting this secret den to be themed after an agave cantina, but instead it feels like a rave with strobing lights, fog machines, huge wall speakers and techno music blasting. I ordered the Kandi marg with tequila, dragon fruit and Malibu rum that’s garnished with a candy bracelet. The air conditioning makes it tempting to park it here for a while, but I was quickly overstimulated by the blaring beats.
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Jack White’s surprise Mojave Tent set works in some White Stripes early
Jack White’s guitar acted as a siren’s call when he hit the stage of the Mojave Tent at 3 p.m. I saw hundreds of people step up their pace to make it over to watch his set.
Getting there early was rewarded. The second song was the White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a Girl,” the first half its garage punk original before morphing into a bluesy middle and back again.
After that we got another White Stripes classic, “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.”
Yes, to those of you watching at home, Jack White did start at 3 but the livestream on YouTube doesn’t even start until 4.
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Step inside a vintage photo booth to find Coachella’s coolest bar
Coachella decided to make things easier for guests searching for hidden speakeasies this year, with two located right across the way from each other in Street Food Alley. I decided to visit Photo Automatica first, which has an old school photobooth entry that leads to an air-conditioned bunker that’s draped in hanging ivy and vintage touches, as if it’s some time-forgotten space that’s existed since before the festival began, complete with a piano that glows with rows of flameless candles.
But the automated cool air and DJ that volleys between soulful oldies from Earth, Wind & Fire and hits by Dua Lipa bring the space firmly into the present. The cocktails have a similarly whimsical theme; I went for the tart and citrusy Butterfly Effect with tequila, velvet falernum, passion fruit, lemon and butterfly pea tea. As I stood under a vent feeling the chilly air on my face, I wondered if it’d really be so bad to spend the entirety of the festival in this vibey, dimly lit space.
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These Beliebers are already camped out for Justin Bieber’s Coachella set
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It’s 2 p.m. at Coachella and hundreds of Justin Bieber fans are camped at the main stage for his 11:25 p.m. headlining set. The Times’ senior editor for video and concerned older person Mark Potts talked to Beliebers, some of whom came from as far as Brazil, to see the music superstar’s first headline performance at the festival.
What did he want to know? If they were prepared to camp out for nine and a half hours.
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With Drake and Justin Bieber co-signs, Long Beach’s Giveon looks to spin his R&B into Grammy gold
Giveon plays the Coachella stage from 7-7:50 p.m. Saturday, April 11. In 2021, staff writer August Brown spent time with the Long Beach native talking about his rise to fame, including the smash hit “Peaches” with Justin Bieber and Daniel Caesar.
In July, the Long Beach singer Giveon played to tens of thousands at Lollapalooza in Chicago, the first festival of his short but ambitious R&B career.
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A local vendor to kick off Day Two of eating at Coachella
There’s a slight breeze and slightly lower temperatures welcoming us into Day Two of Coachella. As is my new tradition, I stopped by the bass-thumping Electrolit activation for a sample of the hydrating sports drink. Yesterday I had the red flavor, which had a mild, vaguely fruit punch taste, so today I made sure to ask what flavor I was drinking. The blue raspberry was vaguely reminiscent of Gatorade, with a pleasant tartness and a slightly medicinal aftertaste.
All day yesterday I kept seeing festival goers carrying char-spotted crepes in cones brimming with savory ingredients and I knew that I would be seeking it out first thing on Day Two. I was pleased to find that the crepes came courtesy of Gabino’s Creperie, a recommendation on restaurant critic Bill Addison’s updated Palm Springs dining guide, which recently opened a second location in Indio. After a minute or two wait, I was presented with my prize, which overflowed with creamy pesto, crunchy lettuce and onions and tender squares of grilled chicken, all encased in a cheesy wrap that ate like a freshly made flour tortilla. Not too heavy but still filling, it was the perfect meal to kick off Day Two.
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J-pop star Fujii Kaze was ‘burned out’ until he came to L.A. and found a musical breakthrough
Fujii Kaze plays the Mojave Tent from 4:30-5:20 p.m. Saturday, April 11. We caught up with him last year.
Fujii Kaze comes across a bit shy at first, but after he gets comfortable, his quirky sense of humor and high cheekbones evoke a slightly subdued Jack Sparrow.
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10 minutes backstage with David Lee Roth at Coachella
David Lee Roth popped out at Coachella on Friday to sing Van Halen’s classic “Jump” with Teddy Swims. After the show, we grabbed a few minutes with the 71-year-old rock star, who wore a beaded vest and tight silver-and-black trousers and sipped from a red plastic cup.
Ted, Teddy, Theodore — what do you call Teddy Swims?
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Boundary-pushing K-pop superstar Taemin is ‘grateful but still hungry’ to take the genre to greater heights
Taemin plays the Mojave Tent from 7:30-8:20 p.m. Saturday, April 11. We sat down with him in 2024 before KCON in L.A.
In recent years, you can’t look at a Billboard chart, the Hot 100 or the 200 without seeing a K-pop artist.
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PinkPantheress is 100% sure she wants to be a pop star
PinkPantheress plays the Mojave Tent from 8:55-9:45 p.m. Saturday, April 11. We caught up with her in late 2025.
PinkPantheress broke out in 2021 with a series of charming and inventive singles that placed her high, breathy vocals over skittering beats built around easily recognizable samples. It was as though the English singer and producer were trying to insert herself into pop-music history from behind a laptop in her bedroom — which is pretty much what ended up happening.
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Coachella 2026: Violent winds disrupt festival, campgrounds
Strong winds disrupted the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday night and the forecast calls for more gusts throughout the weekend.
Windy conditions are not unusual to the festival, which attracts roughly 125,000 attendees to the Empire Polo Club each of its weekends, but it’s rare to see the weather cause performances to be canceled.
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Coachella 2026: How premium brands are cashing in on a ‘consumer wonderland’
Coachella revelers are getting ready to pitch their tents, performing artists are running through their final rehearsals and thousands of global brands are gearing up for what will be one of the biggest content-making weekends of the year.
What began as a grungy early 2000s desert fest has since evolved into a high-end global cultural phenomenon. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio is regarded as one of the largest of its kind in the world, drawing more than 125,000 people a day across two consecutive weekends in April.
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Sombr is 2025’s sultry alt-pop star. Can he join the rock greats too?
Sombr plays the Outdoor Theatre from 7:05-7:55 p.m. Saturday, April 11. Staff writer August Brown caught up with Sombr in 2025.
Back in August, the 20-year-old Shane Boose of Sombr threw his record release party on the patio of the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. Sombr’s debut album, “I Barely Know Her,” wouldn’t be out for a few days yet, but under the patio’s twinkling fairy lights, he was already sweating the numbers a bit.
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Addison Rae knows what you were expecting
Addison Rae plays the Coachella stage from 5:30-6:20 p.m. Saturday, April 11. We caught up with her in late 2025.
Addison Rae slides into a booth at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and orders — what else? — black coffee and a chocolate milkshake.
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Artists we can’t wait to see on Saturday
These are the acts our team can’t wait to see on Saturday. See the full list for Coachella’s first weekend.
Ecca Vandal
4:20 p.m., Sonora Tent
Ecca Vandal hooked me with “Cruising to Self Soothe,” which gave Turnstile x Brody Dalle (the Distillers) vibes, when I first heard it last spring, but she travels in many genres, crossing into punk, trip hop, alternative hip-hop and pop. With a new album, “Looking for People to Unfollow,” out May 22, and upcoming tour dates that are a mix of supporting Deftones around the world and festivals like Lollapalooza, this is your chance to talk about how you saw her at Coachella’s smallest stage way back when. (Vanessa Franko)
Geese
6:15 p.m., Gobi Tent
Geese have undeniably been at the forefront of conversations on tantalizing, new rock and the revival of the classic “band scene.” This year they show up a little further down the Saturday lineup than expected, especially given their astronomical ascension in popularity, but it’s beyond doubt that they will pull quite the crowd and likely an electric one, too. On stage, Cameron Winter leads an overall enthralling performance, as the group slams out songs back-to-back with little to say in between; no shenanigans, just a top-notch show. (Julius Miller)
Giveon
7 p.m., Coachella Stage
The desert can be hot and rough, but Giveon’s soothing baritone is a balm capable of healing sunburns and broken hearts. Since the breakout success of 2022’s “Give or Take,” the Long Beach-bred singer has certainly taken off, earning an avalanche of recognition for his deep, emotionally available twist on romantic R&B, which was also well received at Coachella that year. His rise continued into 2025 and beyond with the release of his sophomore album “Beloved,” a sweeping journey through lush rhythms and a deep well of feeling on songs like “Twenties” that will help your soul re-hydrate once again in the Indio heat as the sun goes down. (Nate Jackson)
Nine Inch Noize
8 p.m., Sahara Tent
What exactly will Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Boys Noize be doing at this bespoke collaborative electronic set? It sounds like they’re building the plane while they fly it, but the middle section of their recent “Peel It Back” tour showed how they can rip apart the NIN canon and make it club-ready with plenty of arena-goth charisma. (August Brown)
The Strokes
9 p.m., Coachella Stage
Six years after “The New Abnormal” proved they can still draw an audience of teenagers, the Strokes are using Coachella to drum up interest in a forthcoming follow-up album, “Reality Awaits,” which they recorded with Rick Rubin in Costa Rica (because why not). This week the band released the LP’s lead single, “Going Shopping”; it sounds kind of like the Steve Miller Band if Auto-Tune had existed in the mid-1970s. (Mikael Wood)
Justin Bieber
11:25 p.m., Coachella Stage
The former teen-pop idol recently teased his headlining appearance with stripped-down gigs at the Roxy and the Troubadour in which he performed only material from last year’s “Swag” and “Swag II” albums. One presumes Bieber will offer a more expansive production for his first big concert in years — but then again he was one of the few high-profile voices to praise Frank Ocean’s polarizing (if brilliant!) headlining set in 2023. (MW)
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How to watch Justin Bieber, The Strokes and more on the Coachella day 2 livestream
Coachella’s got you all in your head? Think you’d rather watch Bieber while you’re in your bed?
Then you’re in luck! Hot off the success of both “Swag” albums and a (literally) stripped down Grammys performance, Beliebers will be able to watch Justin Bieber’s day 2 headlining set at 11:25 p.m. on the Coachella YouTube livestream.
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Catch up on everything that happened Friday at Coachella
Coachella’s 25th year is underway and Day 1 closed with Sabrina Carpenter’s Hollywood story on the main stage. EDM artist Anyma, who was supposed to perform after her, had to cancel his set due to the high winds.
Other highlights of the day included Bini’s P-pop debut, Katseye’s “Golden” moment with “KPop Demon Hunters,” the XX’s Coachella comeback and an inside look at the Radiohead bunker.
Friday highlights:
Sabrina Carpenter’s headlining set
Bob Baker Marionettes: L.A.’s tiniest stars take on Coachella