Coachella Weekend 1 Recap

What started with technically difficulties on night one ended with surprise appearances made by many on days two and three. Coachella’s first weekend started off slow but certainly finished strong!

Day One included performances by Big Gigantic, Oh Wonder, The XX, and Mac Miller. Then at 9:40pm Travis Scott took the stage with a mix of hits like “Pick Up the Phone” and mixtape cuts “Upper Echelon”. Using the jumbotron and stage props, Scott also encouraged the first day crowd to rage, using a few choice words to get the sentiment across.

Night One headliners, Radiohead had some technical difficulties that seemingly plagued them throughout their entire set. As a reward for putting up with the issues Radiohead played a hit they haven’t played in a (long) while, “Creep”. Though the closed the main stage, night one kept going with Dillion Francis bringing G-Eazy out for their new song “Say Less” and D.R.A.M was still going at nearly 1 am.

Day Two saw many surprise guests (perhaps to make up for the lack of guests day one?). Mura Masa brought out Charli XCX for “1 Night” and A$AP Rocky for “Love$ick”. Future made his Coachella debut one to remember by not only bringing out Ty Dolla $ign for his opener “Blasé” but he also brought out Migos and Drake, who each performed their own set within his set. 

A$AP Rocky stormed the stage again, this time during ScHoolboy Q’s set alongside Tyler, The Creator. By 9:45pm the surprises were far from over when The Weeknd jumped on stage with Nav for “Party Monster”, “Starboy” and “Some Way”, the pair’s duet. Lauryn Hill joined DJ Snake on stage for a guest appearance and performance of the song “Killing Me Softly (With His Song) much to the crowds delight.

Night Two headliner, Lady Gaga hit the stage at 11:30pm, as the jumbotron played a series of momentum building videos. Her 20-song set spanned her entire catalog, this time not skipping out on cuts from Art Pop like her Super Bowl performance. Gaga also gave a nod to Beyoncé, who she was there filling in for, by performing their duet, “Telephone”. Forever keeping fans on their toes, the pop star debuted a brand new song titled “The Cure” which was made available for download via iTunes and also streaming on all of the top players, Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal.

The third and final day of weekend 1 saw even more surprise guests. DJ Khaled brought out 2 Chainz, Rae Sremmurd's Swae Lee, French Montana, Migos, Rick Ross and Wale. Hot off the heels of a tour announcement, Hans Zimmer played selections from beloved soundtracks Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, and The Lion King and brought out Pharrell Williams to perform “Freedom”.  

The end of Weekend 1 was capped off with a man who released a brand new album on Friday titled, DAMN., Kendrick Lamar. Performing for over an hour Lamar spanned his catalog with cuts from good kid, m.A.A.d city, To Pimp a Butterfly and DAMN. To keep the special guests going he was joined on stage by ScHoolboy Q, Future and Travis Scott.


Written by Kristen