Coachella at 25 — The moments that turned a music festival into a phenomenon
Coachella at 25 — The moments that turned a music festival into a phenomenon
Ema Sasic, Brian Blueskye and Shad Powers, Palm Springs Desert SunTue, April 7, 2026 at 6:43 PM UTC
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The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is celebrating its 25th iteration this month, and boy has this annual gathering given us plenty to talk about.
What started as a modest idea at the end of the 20th century morphed into the hottest event of the year with the biggest names attending and performing year after year. There have been setbacks during its 25 years, including financial loss and a two-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Coachella continues to give us more each year. This year's festival is set for April 10-12 and 17-19 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
In honor of its quarter life, The Desert Sun is looking back on the festival's 25 most iconic, most talked about and most "WTF did we just witness?" moments. From an incredible Pixies reunion to the showstopping 'Beychella' set to that Tupac hologram, the festival grounds have seen it all.
Here are the 25 most memorable moments in Coachella history (thus far).
1. The start of it all in 1999
Crowd shot near the main main stage at Coachella, taken October 10, 1999. Desert Sun file photo.
Fueled by a successful Pearl Jam concert on the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California, in 1993, promoter Goldenvoice and its head man Paul Tollett came up with the idea to hold a yearly music festival at that spot. It took six years for everything to fall into place, but Oct. 9-10, 1999, the first Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was held.
The headliners were Beck, Tool and Rage Against the Machine. It was hot, more than 100 degrees, per usual in early October in the desert, and tickets were $50 each day and they sold around 17,000 for Friday and 20,000 for Saturday. That was actually far below the stated goal of 70,000 attendees, but the festival went off without a hitch and was highly regarded even though it was a big money loser for Goldenvoice that first year.
There was an attempt to do it again in 2000, but tweaks had to be made and money recovered so it did not happen. They returned in 2001, smartly moving the dates to April to beat the heat. Still struggling, it was only one day that year with Jane's Addiction as the headliner. Now, they were off and running. When the following April came around, bands were lining up to play Coachella. It stayed in April and was increased to multiple days, and it's been that way ever since. — Shad Powers
2. Bjork wows as first female headliner in 2002
Singer Bjork performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival April 27, 2002 in Indio, CA.
The unique Icelandic performer was having a moment in the early 2000s, and Coachella noticed, tapping her to be the first female headliner. Her performance drew praise as she broke tradition and played with a full string quartet and a harpist, going for a soft, intimate feel one moment and then showcasing her powerful voice the next. Her set was so well-received, that organizers had her back to headline again in 2007. Despite the critical and fan acclaim, organizers did not have any (non-Bjork) female headliners in its first 18 years until Lady Gaga in 2017. They've had at least one female headliner every year since. — Shad Powers
3. Pixies reunion in 2004 helps create first-ever Coachella sellout
Reunions have long been a part of Coachella lore, but the Pixies in 2004 may have been the most anticipated. The event drew more than 100,000 total attendees for the first time and Rolling Stone officially proclaimed Coachella "America's Best Music Festival." Plus, the Pixies didn't disappoint. It was their first time playing together since 1992 as they played in the lead-in spot to headliners Radiohead. It was by all accounts a triumph and they had the entire polo grounds singing along to "Here Comes Your Man." It felt like the first real "Coachella Moment." — Shad Powers
4. Flaming Lips singer crowd surfs in a giant ball in 2004
Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips surfs the crowd inside a bubble at the 2004 Coachella.
Taking a page out of Glinda's book, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips created a viral image at the 2004 festival before those were even a thing. The frontman stepped inside a giant, transparent ball and literally rolled over the heads of the crowd near the main stage. It became not only one of the most talked about moments of that year's festival, but truly set the scene for out-of-this-world moments that Coachella would be notorious for. — Ema Sasic
5. Madonna delivers much-panned performance in 2006
Madonna performs at the 2006 Coachella Music Festival on April 30, 2006 in Indio, California.
When Madonna showed up on the Coachella poster for 2006, it perked a lot of eyebrows. Sure, it'd be cool to see the Material Girl in action, but at this point pop stars really hadn't been part of the festival. Madonna had a mid-day, 50-minute set scheduled on one of the outer tents, seemed like a recipe for trouble and it was. The Sahara Tent was overflowing out both sides and the back in a way that hadn't happened to that point. Then, Madonna was about 25 minutes late for her 50-minute set and with the rigid time schedule of Coachella she could only played six songs.
It was a flop. She didn't have time to play any classics, just her current jams like "Hung Up" and "Ray of Light." People left disappointed. It was a rare epic fail for the festival. But lucky for them, it came just a few hours after one of its biggest triumphs — a set turned in by two faceless dudes. — Shad Powers
6. Daft Punk stuns (in a good way) in 2006
Daft Punk performs at the Coachella Music Festival on April 29, 2006 in Indio, California.
The 2006 festival featured a performance by then little-known-to-the-mainstream-music-fan Daft Punk. Their set featured a pyramid-shaped stage that lit up to match the beats with the two mysterious helmeted men kicking out undeniable jams from the top of it. The set was so iconic, it's credited with bringing EDM to the mainstream and changed the way future electronic acts handle their visual presentations. A packed Sahara Tent grooved the night away to the French DJs and Coachella had another iconic performance to add to its now growing lore. — Shad Powers
7. Prince rides in to save the day in 2008
Prince performs during day 2 of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on Saturday April 26, 2008, in Indio, California.
Portishead. That's the answer to a good Coachella trivia question. They were the billed headliner for Saturday in 2008. The festival did not sell out for the first time in years. Then all of a sudden two weeks before Coachella, a new Friday headliner was announced, some guy named Prince. What? Those that didn't have tickets scrambled to get them. Those that gave away their Friday ticket to a friend (me!) regretted it immediately. And Prince brought it. His rendition of Radiohead's "Creep" from that night is often mentioned when the topic of best single song ever performed at Coachella. Prince helped ticket sales, but his high price tag (as well as Sunday headliner Roger Waters) meant that Coachella lost money that year. — Shad Powers
8. Paul McCartney performs costly three-hour singalong in 2009
Imagine 90,000 people in a field singing "Hey Jude" together. Paul McCartney's headlining set in 2009 was goose-bump inducing and probably goes down for me personally as my favorite non-Beyonce performance that I've witnessed at Coachella. Everyone was vibing out to the former Beatle. No one wanted him to stop and neither did he. Sir Paul famously played for 54 minutes after the 1 a.m. curfew which coast the festival $54,000. It was worth every penny. — Shad Powers
9. Tupac hologram consumes 2012 fest
Rapper Snoop Dogg (L) and a hologram of deceased Tupac Shakur perform onstage during day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Field on April 15, 2012 in Indio, California.
It was Sunday night and all anyone had been talking about all weekend was the Tupac Shakur hologram that would be performing with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. The moment came and a projection of the deceased rapper appeared. It talked to the audience, danced in step with the others on stage and sang the Tupac tunes "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted." And then it walked off stage. It was at the same time cool to see, but also a tad underwhelming. Love the idea and effort that went in to trying something different, and it is still maybe the most one of the most iconic Coachella moments. Like if you asked a stranger "Have you ever heard of Coachella?" There's a good chance they'll say "Yeah, Tupac hologram, right?" — Shad Powers
10. Major Lazer offers explosive performances in 2013
In 2013, Major Lazer’s popularity was rising, and the electronic music group’s appearance at Coachella was highly anticipated ahead of Weekend 1, a few days before the release of the album “Free the Universe.” The crowd not only filled the tent, but also the surrounding areas from every direction. The turnout was the same during Weekend 2.
When Diplo, Walshy Fire, and Jillionaire arrived on stage and began tossing out vuvuzelas — the plastic horns that went viral during the 2010 World Cup — the energy in the tent shifted to absolute chaos with bodies packed shoulder-to-shoulder, but still jumping every time a beat dropped, and waving shirts and flags in the air. All the members went crowd surfing at various times during the show, and they also got in large inflatable plastic bubbles to walk over the crowd. — Brian Blueskye
11. Giant astronaut becomes iconic symbol of the festival
It wasn't a headliner or crazy moment on stage that caught our, and the world's, attention in 2014. It was the giant floating astronaut art installation "Escape Velocity." The piece, which was big enough to be part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, was everywhere on the grounds that year. Literally, as it sat on a forklift and traveled through the crowd all weekend long. It became an iconic symbol for the festival, and it's remained one of the best art pieces we've seen on the grounds more than a decade later. The moon man returned in 2019 for Coachella's 20th anniversary with a few upgrades. — Ema Sasic
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12. Motörhead becomes the heaviest band to perform at Coachella in 2014
Many say that metal doesn’t have a place at Coachella, but in 2014, Goldenvoice booked Motörhead, the metal band that proudly proclaimed to be “Everything louder than everything else.” It was a return to the stage for frontman Lemmy Kilmister, who was battling health problems at the time, and the band’s set in the Mojave was played at an ear-splitting volume.
One of the highlights was Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash joining for guest appearances during both weekends to perform “Ace of Spades.” But Coachella was also the start of what would be the final tour for Motörhead before Kilmister died in 2015. Even though Tool holds the honor of being the first metal band to perform at Coachella, Motörhead was the heaviest band to perform at the festival. — Brian Blueskye
13. Florence Welch turns a broken foot into an unforgettable comeback in 2015
Florence + the Machine sits during her performance due to an injured foot at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio on Sunday night, April 19, 2015.
During Florence + The Machine’s Weekend 1 performance in 2015, Florence Welch leapt off the stage to interact with fans on the barricade and fractured her foot. It was a bitter end to one of the best sets of the weekend. When she returned for Weekend 2, a member of the band carried Welch out on stage and placed her on a stool. She explained what happened the weekend before and was going to perform the show while seated.
Even though the Weekend 2 performance was obviously not the same, it was just as musically captivating and energetic, and she held the large Coachella Stage audience from start to finish. — Brian Blueskye
14. Kaskade draws in record-breaking crowd in 2015
Kaskade performs during the second Sunday of the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio.
It's hard to know exactly how many people attend each performer's set, but EDM artist Kaskade achieved something special in 2015. His performance drew in an estimated 90,000+ people, which was the largest crowd in the festival's history at that time. Just imagine being surrounded by THAT many people in one space, all dancing, jumping around and having the time of their lives. You don't come by something like that too often. This also likely showed festival organizers just how big DJs and EDM artists are, and it's led to so many great lineups throughout the years. — Ema Sasic
15. 2016 marks 'the year that Prince died'
A poster of Prince hangs in tribute to the musician in the KROQ Disco Duck tent during Weekend 2, Day 2 of Coachella, Saturday, April 23, 2016.
Weekend 2 of the 2016 festival is best remembered as the year Prince died. The legendary singer had passed the day before the festival began, and several performers paid tribute to him during their performances. R&B and soul singer Mavis Staples began her set with an a capella performance of “Purple Rain” and shared details of their friendship. Headliner LCD Soundsystem performed “Controversy.” Sufjan Stevens also performed “Purple Rain.” Ice Cube dedicated his set to him. Many others included partial covers, snippets of his songs in theirs, or paid tribute to him during the weekend.
Headliner Guns N’ Roses mentioned they wanted to include something in their set, but didn’t have time to rehearse anything. But Major Lazer did have one of the biggest tributes of the weekend when they brought out Usher as a special guest to perform “I Would Die 4 U.” — Brian Blueskye
16. Tycho captures the beauty of Coachella’s golden hour in 2017
Apr 22, 2017; Indio, CA, USA; Sunset at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club. Mandatory Credit: The Desert Sun-USA TODAY NETWORK
Some performances during the golden hour at the Outdoor Theatre have become truly some of the most memorable moments The sun is going down, there's relief from the hot temperatures, and there's often a captivating image of the festival stages and the Empire Polo Club in the sunset. In 2017, Tycho’s downtempo and ambient music was the perfect blend for the golden hour and halfway point of the three-day festival. As crowds cooled down from the heat, anticipating Lady Gaga’s headlining set later that night, there was a vibration in the air that made anyone who was around the stage let go, take a seat in the grass and unwind. — Brian Blueskye
17. 'Beychella' raises the bar for headlining performances in 2018
Apr 21, 2018; Indio, CA, USA; Beyonce performs during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club. Mandatory Credit: Richard Lui/The Desert Sun via USA TODAY NETWORK
When Beyoncé performed at Coachella in 2018, it wasn’t just a headlining performance; it was a massive HBCU homecoming‑themed production with a marching band and over 100 dancers, which included a Destiny’s Child reunion, and it made headlines around the world. It wasn’t hype, Beyoncé exceeded every expectation and raised the bar on headlining performances, and the festival hasn’t been the same since.
There have been some great headlining performances since, but the only one that has come close to Beyoncé is Lady Gaga in 2025. — Brian Blueskye
18. Tame Impala delivers unforgettable headlining performance in 2019
Tame Impala performs on the main stage at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. on Sat. April 20, 2019.
When Kevin Parker’s psychedelic rock project Tame Impala headlined in 2019, the production was anything but minimal. Parker kept his crowd banter to a minimum, letting the visuals do the talking as smoke effects, hazy neon lighting and lasers shot out of a massive circular LED ring suspended above the stage, which looked like a UFO. During Weekend 2, the band performed through a windstorm, and when the confetti cannons blasted during the opening song “Let It Happen,” the gusts sent strips of paper whipping straight into the faces of the Coachella Stage crowd. — Brian Blueskye
19. 2020s are all about surprises
Blink-182 bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus performs during their set in the Sahara tent during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., Friday, April 14, 2023.
If there's one thing we've come to learn about Coachella in the 2020s, it's to expect the unexpected. Just when festivalgoers think they have the lineup all figured out, there's suddenly a surprise addition when the set times drop, like when Vampire Weekend joined the fun in 2024 and Ed Sheeran made his festival debut in 2025. We've gotten surprise reunions for bands we never could have imagined, such as the original Blink-182 trio jamming out in 2023 and No Doubt delivering one of the best sets at the festival in 2024. And sometimes, unfortunately, there are surprise dropouts, like Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in the first post-COVID-19 Coachella in 2022, and Frank Ocean in 2023 (more on that in a minute). — Ema Sasic
20. Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK, Frank Ocean make history in 2023
Headliner Bad Bunny performs "Tití Me Preguntó" on the Coachella Stage during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., Friday, April 14, 2023.
Getting to experience a history-making set at Coachella is a moment you'll never forget. Those who snagged wristbands for the 2023 festival got not one, not two but three history-making headlining sets. Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny made history as the first Latino solo artist to headline Coachella, the BLACKPINK quartet was the first K-pop band to headline and though he only performed one weekend, Frank Ocean also made history as the first queer man to headline the festival. Each of their performances delivered something unique on the Coachella Stage, and we're still talking about them to this day. — Ema Sasic
21. Frank Ocean confuses all of us in 2023
Frank Ocean is seen on the display screen during his headlining set on the Coachella stage during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., Sunday, April 16, 2023.
To be quite honest, we're still trying to figure this one out. Frank Ocean was tapped to headline the festival in 2023 in a widely anticipated return to music for the reclusive singer. Unfortunately, things got off on the wrong foot from the start, with his set running nearly an hour late, and never really picked back up. People with hoods and face covers slowly marched in a circle on the stage, and it was hard to see if he was even out there at all. Hearing him sing after so many years was a treat, but because of his late start, the set ended abruptly due to curfew and it left many fans frustrated. A few days later, it was reported that the singer pulled out from Weekend 2 due to a leg injury. The news outlet Variety also reported that his Weekend 1 set had to be reworked due to his injury and that's what led to the oftentimes confusing performance. We'll always wonder what the second performance would have looked like, but at least Blink-182 and DJ trio Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred Again saved the day. — Ema Sasic
22. Kid Cudi takes an unfortunate tumble in 2024
Kid Cudi performs in the Sahara tent during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., Sunday, April 21, 2024.
We hate to make him relive this moment, but it's kind of iconic in an unfortunate way. Rapper Kid Cudi took the expression "break a leg" a little too literally when he was a special treat for Weekend 2 fans in 2024. He played to an overflowing Sahara tent crowd and had everyone in the palm of his hands, when suddenly he tried to jump down from the stage during his hit "Memories," hurting his foot in the process. He later confirmed in a X post that he broke his foot and used a very appropriate facepalm emoji. But he added that he heard everyone "still ragin" while he was being tended to off stage and that put a smile on his face, which obviously made us smile big too. — Ema Sasic
23. Doja Cat gives us one of the strangest but endlessly entertaining headlining sets in 2024
Doja Cat performs her headlining set on the Coachella Stage during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., Sunday, April 14, 2024.
Long-haired blond Yetis, a hazmat suit and a mud wrestling ring. They're not things you'd expect from a Coachella performance, but then again, rapper Doja Cat is not one to play it safe. The singer pulled out all the stops to close out both weekends in 2024 with sets that made our jaws drop at times, think about what conditioner the Yetis use to keep their locks so smooth and wonder how many showers Doja would need to get all that mud off. But that's exactly the level of theatrics you need if you want to leave a lasting impression, and as the first solo female rapper to headline the festival, she did exactly that. — Ema Sasic
24. Sen. Bernie Sanders makes an impassioned surprise appearance in 2025
Bernie Sanders makes a surprise appearance before Clairo’s set on the Outdoor Theatre stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, April 12, 2025.
Normally we expect surprise guests in the form of musical collaborators, not necessarily politicians. But that's exactly what happened when Sen. Bernie Sanders surprised everyone as part of an introduction to the performer Clairo. The senator told Coachella attendees that the fate of America lay with the younger generation, and he urged people to become politically active to fight for progressive causes like universal healthcare, women's rights and to prevent climate change. The crowd cheered, plenty were in disbelief and many wanted to keep politics out of their fun night. Either way, it scertainly was a moment no one could have ever predicted. — Ema Sasic
25. Lady Gaga turned the desert into an opera house in 2025
Lady Gaga performs her headlining set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., on Friday, April 11, 2025.
If anyone was going to deliver a over-the-top theatrical headlining set, it was going to be Lady Gaga. The Grammy Award winner returned to Coachella in 2025 for her second shot as a headliner, though it was widely considered her true first because she had little time to prepare for her 2017 stint when she had to replace Beyonce. But with ample time to cross her t's and dot her i's, the singer promised fans "a massive night of chaos in the desert" and it's exactly what they got. Giving people a glimpse of her Mayhem Ball, she came out as the lady in red (in reference to her song "Abracadabra"), emerged from a massive cage, faced off against a masked woman in white on a light-up chessboard for the song "Poker Face," escaped a giant sandbox and danced with skeletons. No one is doing it like Lady Gaga and we're just glad we got to witness her genius. — Ema Sasic
Shad Powers is the sports and leisure editor at The Desert Sun. He can be reached at Shad.Powers@desertsun.com. Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com. Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella's most iconic moments as festival turns 25
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