Despite a two year of set back due to increasing concerns of Covid-19, Coachella is back this year, announcing its full line up with headliners including Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and Ye (Kanye West). The festival will be held over two weekends: 15-17th April and 22-24th April with Harry Styles headlining on both Fridays (15th & 22nd) whilst Billie Eilish will headline on the Saturdays (16th & 23rd) and Ye will conclude on the Sundays.
The festival promises an immense lineup with other acts including Phoebe Bridgers, Megan Thee Stallion, 21 Savage, Doja Cat, Rum the Jewels, Fat Boy Slim, Daniel Caesar, 21 Savage and many, many, many more. Fans are also thrilled by the return of Swedish House Mafia to the festival as well. In fact, fans have jumped at the news of Coachella’s return as organisers have announced that the first weekend has already sold out. Tickets for the second week will be released today (Friday) at the UK time of 6pm.
The infamous Coachella festival is held ever year near Palm Springs in the Indio desert. Statistics showed that nearly 250,000 people attended the festival in 2019 and organisers imagine the festival will be an even bigger event this year after the cancellation of two festivals prior due to increasing concerns over the coronavirus. The usual April 2020 event was previously ostponed until October however this was withheld due to the same concerns.
Some fans have retaliated the 2022 line up as the 2020 festival planned to headline Frank Ocean, Rage Against The Machine and Travis Scott – who do not feature in the 2022 line up. Rage Against The Machine are now one of the most anticipated performances at Reading Festival, held in the UK in August this year. Frank Ocean has announced that he will not be performing at Coachella until 2023, whilst Travis Scott has been omitted from the festival’s line up due to the controversy surrounding his November 2021 concert Astroworld which saw the horrific death of 10 people due to overcrowding.
This year’s line up heralds some of the biggest names in music. Harry Style’s debut at the festival has generated an enormous response on Twitter as fans are thrilled that he will be performing live, whilst Billie Eilish has been recognised as the youngest headliner to perform in Coachella’s 23 year history.
Kanye West’s announcement has also generated enormous attention as he hasn’t appeared at Coachella as a headliner since 2011. His last feature performances were in 2015 with The Weekend and in 2019 with Kid Cudi.
However, despite the A-lister line up, the organisers of the festival have been criticised for their controversial decisions. Twitter users have vocalised their disdain for the festival, some advocating for a boycott, as the organisers have reportedly donated to anti-LGBTQ+ organisations. Conversely to their behaviour, their motives seem unclear, as this year the festival is promoting a lineup that features a large majority of LGBTQ+ artists, causing fans to question their motives and vocalise their criticism of the festival.
Undoubtedly, looking at Coachella’s successful history and sought-after reputation, this will not prevent the crowds from gathering at the festival, despite increasing concerns surrounding Omicron as well. It does however seem to appear that this year’s festival will be highly anticipated with both criticism and excitement.
For more information about Coachella’s youngest headliner, check out this article here.
