Coachella Music and Arts Festival second weekend was a thrilling experience for locals and visitors, with iconic surprise guests, amazing set lists and new experiences with pop-ups and artworks. Locals and visitors brought great energy to the desert for an exhilarating weekend of new experiences.
Weekend two is known for being “the locals’ weekend” where people from all throughout the Coachella Valley attended the festival while influencers and celebrities are more seen throughout weekend one. However, this might be different next year after many surprise guests were taking the stage during weekend two compared to weekend one which they’re more known for.
This year’s lineup was stacked with music for everyone, headliners included Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G, with artists like Young Thug, The XX, Laufey, The Strokes and many more in attendance.
Carpenter gave a real house tour to weekend two with a crazy set. Performing almost the entirety of “Man’s Best Friend,” her most recent hit album while also bringing back some songs from her previous two albums: “Short n Sweet” and “Emails I can’t send.” For those who are fans of her Juno pose, she switched it up by starting into Madonna’s “Vogue” which had fans screaming as the iconic pop artist herself came onstage to join the younger star to give fans a preview of their new collaboration “Bring your Love”. Actor Terry Crews made a surprise cameo as Carpenter’s electrician to fix the stage lights and give fans a little show of him singing the lyrics to “A Thousand Miles” which was famously used in the 2000’s hit “White Chicks.” Carpenter gave fans a sight of old Hollywood aesthetics as she made “Sabrinawood” (Her version of Hollywood) the main set for her performance and brought out Academy Award winner Geena Davis. Filled with fun costumes, beautiful set pieces and extravagant imagery Carpenter made Coachella a night to never forget.
Justin Bieber finally came back to the festival scene performing for the first time in front of a live crowd since his last performance as a guest during Coachella 2024. He started off his set by performing songs from his two most recent albums “Swag 1” and “Swag 2” where he brought surprise guest Sexyy Red where they had their live debut of their collaboration “Sweet Spot.” After he knocked out most of the songs from those two albums, he decided to bring everyone back with a wave of nostalgia as he performed old hits like “Baby” and “As Long as You Love Me” where he brought out Big Sean. Possibly the most famous ever, Billie Eilish was brought up on stage to be Bieber’s “One Less Lonely Girl.” He finished the second night of the weekend closing out with his biggest most recent hits “Yukon” and “Daises,” while also bringing out SZA to perform her song “Snooze.” The crowd for Bieber was huge; fans piled around the main stage to see the pop singer bring Bieber fever to the valley.
Karol G was the last headliner of Coachella 2026, and she did not disappoint, with a huge crowd of fans camping out all day to see the Latin pop singer, she performed all her hits and brought out a handful of surprise guests to join her including J Balvin, Peso Pluma, Becky G and Ryan Castro. She transformed her stage into a celebration of Latin culture by mixing elements into the set design, costumes and performance and even bringing out a mariachi band. Karol G is now also the first Latin woman to headline Coachella hopefully with how huge the crowd was Coachella will bring in more Latin singers for the following years. To wrap up the night she ended with “Provenza” and surprised fans by flashing “Nos vamos de tour” (We’re going on tour) all over the screens.
While weekend one is considered the weekend where artists bring out more iconic surprise guests, this year those weekends flipped after so many iconic music artists joined performers on stage. With music legends like Madonna and Billy Idol to popular performers who are dominating the charts like Zara Larson, Olivia Rodrigo and LISA. Coachella brought crowds in for all kinds of genres of music.
Many debuts happened throughout the weekend. Day one the Dance/Electropop singer Slayyyter took to the Mojave stage to debut at Coachella with a huge crowd. Katseye had a huge debut, bringing in a massive crowd and a live debut to their song “Pinky’s up.”
Day two Addison Rae performed on the main stage after releasing her self-titled album the previous year, with an elaborate set and a surprise from Olivia Rodrigo, who performed Rae’s hit song “Headphones on” as well as Rodrigo’s new song “Drop Dead.” Sombr was welcomed to the desert as he brought out rock legend Billy Idol to perform his hit song “Eyes without a face.” Pink Pantheress shared the stage with Zara Larson to perform a duet of “Midnight Sun” where she announced a new remix of her hit “Midnight Sun” as part of her upcoming deluxe “Girls Trip”album featuring all-female collaborations.
Day three joining Gigi Perez during her set, was Hayley Kiyoko to perform her throwback hit “Girls Like Girls,” the singers announced a new collaboration track coming in the days after Coachella for the soundtrack of Kiyoko’s upcoming film “Girls Like Girls.” Laufey also made her Coachella debut bringing jazz to the outdoor theatre to perform her hits like “Lover Girl,” “From the Start” and her debut of her newest song “Madwoman.”
Many artists also made a return to the desert like Anyma who shared the stage with BLACKPINK member LISA to perform her new song “Bad Angel.” Singer/Songwriter Joji also shared the stage with Anyma to perform as well as Swae Lee. The XX also brought in a massive crowd after returning to Coachella after almost 10 years of not being on the lineup.
While fans were excited for Coachella 2026 with its range of artists and genres of music, it’s safe to say next year might be ever more busy as predictions say artists like SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, BTS, Dua Lipa and even Daft Punk may come to the desert. The lineup will be announced sometime early next year.
