Other artists include Victoria Monét, Reneé Rapp, J Balvin and Bebe Rexha.
It has been a big weekend of music in the desert. Tyler, the Creator, had a guest-filled spectacle that included a bighorn sheep to top Saturday night after No Doubt performed a set of its biggest hits for the first time in nine years with a little help from Olivia Rodrigo.
Taylor Swift didn’t join Bleachers on stage, but she was watching from the side with Travis Kelce on Saturday evening and Billie Eilish showed up for a surprise in the Do Lab.
And that was after big sets from Lana Del Rey and Peso Pluma on Friday.
Follow along with The Times’ August Brown, Danielle Dorsey, Vanessa Franko and Mikael Wood, who are on the ground in Indio for the final day of the fest’s first weekend.
1:30 p.m. The Do Lab is often described as the festival within the festival at Coachella. In its early years, it was located smack in the middle of the grounds, a beaconing festival-goers with beats, cirque performances and the all-important misters.
The Do Lab’s popularity has grown substantially since it first debuted at Coachella in 2004 and now has its own dedicated area to accommodate 15,000 fans at any given point during the festival.
That space is also known for hosting an impressive list of surprise guests, this year is no exception. Among those who dropped in this year were DJ Pee .Wee (Anderson .Paak) and Sofi Tukker on Friday and 2022 headliner Billie Eilish on Saturday.
The brothers behind the Do Lab, L.A.-based Dede, Jesse, and Josh Flemming, work together to design a whimsical space with an ever-improving concert experience that also provides a respite from the sun.
“We focus on shade primarily and water and misting. We have to pay attention to lighting and sound,” Josh Flemming said.
Even with those practical elements, what makes Do Lab special is the colorful stage build. This year, there are structures of covered by fabric in shades of blue, orange, yellow and red that Josh Flemming described as “10 massive mushrooms.”
“We are the most colorful thing out there. We want people to feel like they almost went through a portal,” Jesse Flemming said.
And if you can’t get enough of the Do Lab vibes at Coachella, check out Lightning in a Bottle, the Do Lab’s own festival, which returns to Buena Vista Lake in Kern County May 22-27. —Vanessa Franko
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
2 p.m. It’s DJ Will Clarke’s first time as a bonafide Coachella performer, though he’s graced the Do Lab stage in past years. The U.K- and Detroit-based DJ who also runs a food-focused Instagram played in the Yuma tent on Saturday, but we met up early Sunday afternoon to take a tour through Postmates’ Sauce Bar in the 12 Peaks VIP Area. The yellow-and-orange shaded structure feels like stepping into the sun and felt at least 10 degrees hotter than our perfect mid-70s reality.
Diners can choose between fries, tots or a combination of both before adding on sauces that pull from some of L.A.’s most iconic eateries, such as BBQ sauce from Bludso’s and a collaboration ghost chile sriracha with producer Benny Blanco. Blanco’s dip turned out to be our favorite of the five options, with the honey mustard coming in second. The real pro move is to dip your fries or tots into the sriracha followed by the honey mustard to slightly temper the heat. We both agreed that Blanco’s sriracha sauce would be ideal with hot wings. Maybe Postmates will incorporate our feedback before coming back for Weekend 2. —Danielle Dorsey
4:18 p.m. Since Friday afternoon, I’ve been keeping track of the number of shaven chests vs. the number of unshaven chests among the men at Coachella. Current totals are:
28,987 shaven
27,674 unshaven
It’s a close race; eager to see which side wins at the end of the night. — M.W.
5:00 p.m. YG Marley is beaming as he enters the Coachella Stage under the high afternoon sun. Complete with an echoing hype man who waves a massive Jamaican flag, he starts with his single “Marching for Freedom,” stomping his feet and urging audience participation. Freedom, peace and love are recurrent themes throughout the set, and a message that collides with that of his late grandfather Bob Marley.
It’s not surprising that YG Marley brought his mother Ms. Lauryn Hill to join him on stage, but the addition of Wyclef Jean and handful of Fugees hits that follow create a frenzy among the crowd, who effortlessly recite every word of “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not” and “No Woman, No Cry.”
Just when I think the energy can’t crescendo any higher, Busta Rhymes skips onto stage to his 1997 single “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.” After a quick detour through Flipmode Squad’s catalog, the ensemble brings it back to Bob Marley hits and Wyclef asks the audience to raise both hands if they want wars across the world to end.
“Put your hands up for peace!” the hype man chants and the crowd happily obliges, hooting in agreement.
Wyclef segues into “One Love,” before queueing up YG Marley to bring it home with “Is This Love.” The Jamaican flag that’s emblazoned across the triple-screen behind the stage gets traded for vintage Bob Marley photos, with YG Marley’s live performance framed in a six-point star. As the music winds down, I find myself caught in a contact-high, not just from the heavy cannabis smoke that wafts across the grounds, but the performance itself. Yes, I think, this is love that I’m feeling. —D.D.
5:03 p.m. Before Taking Back Sunday took the stage in the Mojave Tent Sunday afternoon, the crowd started chanting “TBS! TBS! TBS!” Yes, the emo kids who crowded into basement shows over the decades had found their people. I know because I am one of them.
The band may wear suits on stage now, but they’re just as electric as they were when we were all in our twenties. Adam Lazzara can still swing a microphone around with the best of them.
Highlights of band’s 45-minute set included opener “A Decade Under the Influence,” and classics “You’re So Last Summer” and “Cute without the E (Cut From the Team).”
As I predicted, it was a big cathartic emo sing-along for those of us for whom it was never a phase, culminating in set-closer “MakeDamnSure.” —V.F.