Cultural

Commenters who never have been — and never will go — complain about the cost, the influencers, the hype. Purists wax poetic about the days when they disappeared into three days of music and the field wasn’t overtaken by brands like Barbie and e.l.f. cosmetics. Defenders claim they can camp their way to an affordable weekend, and others spend the whole time posting. A select few even talk about great performances they saw — it’s still a music festival.

But one thing everybody can agree on: Coachella has changed. I should know. I’ve been covering it as a journalist since 2007.

Rapid advancements in technology and mass adoption of social media have brought out the best and worst of the festival — not just on screens thousands of miles away, but to those of us trying not to trip over the makeshift photoshoot you might have seen on Instagram.

Coachella pre-2010 was a purist’s paradise

Some of Coachella’s most iconic moments happened before smartphones: The Flaming Lips in a human hamster ball in 2004; Daft Punk’s 2006 pyramid set; Rage Against the Machine reuniting and calling for the George W. Bush administration to be tried for war crimes in 2007. If you even had a cellphone when Coachella started in 1999 it was probably a Nokia brick or a flip phone with an antenna that had limited talk and text options.

In the early years, there were no brand activations on the field; nobody knew what an influencer was and the only corporate sign you saw was for Heineken in the beer gardens. (There was no Heineken House with its own stage, just signs advertising the beer.)

The grounds were also considerably smaller, making it easier to explore the different stages and discover new music. You didn’t have fancy food options, but a slice of Spicy Pie was less than $10. (Coachella upgraded its food options from festival staples to weekend outposts of L.A. restaurants in 2014.)

The music was the draw. The festival’s track record includes artists like the Killers, the Black Keys, Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar climbing up from small type to headliner on the lineup poster.

Livestreams and influencers made Coachella’s reach global

The vibes started to shift in 2010 as smartphones grew in popularity, although the service on the field was spotty. It was the first year Coachella offered a livestream — available via Facebook and MySpace. The next year, the stream moved to YouTube, where it remains and draws millions of viewers.

As Coachella expanded to twin weekends due to popular demand on the ground in 2012, it also had the first viral moment fans could enjoy from thousands of miles away: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg brought 2Pac back to life via a hologram.

Celebrities were always at Coachella (I spotted Ryan Seacrest, Corbin Bernsen, David Hasselhoff and Danny DeVito in my early years), but the rise of social media made celebrity culture a key part of the event. By 2011, TMZ was posting about stars like Lindsay Lohan. Clips from Coachella went viral and ended up on shows like “Tosh.0” and referenced in “Community.”

The art, which was always part of the festival, became bigger and more iconic. On the growing photo app Instagram, larger-than-life sculptures of astronauts started appearing in selfies.

Brands saw an opportunity. American Express, H&M and Samsung launched activations on-site in 2015. The party scene outside the festival, with non-affiliated events that were timed because everyone was in town for Coachella, became marketing vehicles. Brands are still cashing in more than a decade later.

The next watershed moment was Beyoncé in 2018. Today, most headlining sets at the fest feel as if they are designed for the viewing experience on the livestream rather than the fans on the field (ahem, Justin Bieber and his laptop). But Beyoncé’s spectacle was just as mind-blowing on-site as it was at home. A year later, the “Homecoming” special debuted on Netflix, widening the reach.

Coachella became a key part of the pop culture landscape, and then it became a cornerstone of the influencer economy.

Behind all the hype, there’s still a music festival hiding

I inadvertently photobombed approximately 500 people just trying to go to and from the press tent last weekend and my inbox is overflowing with requests for coverage of off-site events with brands, celebs and TikTok influencers, including social media clips.

But at the end of the day, Coachella is still a music festival, and a really good one at that. The Strokes, David Byrne, Jack White, Iggy Pop, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Fujii Kaze and even Less Than Jake in the Heineken House were some of the best performances I had seen in years.

Coachella is what you make of it. And besides, everyone knows there are fewer influencers on Weekend 2.

Today’s top stories

A health worker administers a measles test on Fernando Tarin, of Seagraves, Texas, at a mobile testing site outside Seminole Hospital District on Feb. 21, 2025.

(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

Increasing measles cases in California

• California in 2026 has already seen its highest number of annual measles cases in seven years amid an ongoing resurgence of a disease once considered effectively eradicated in the U.S.
• The re-emergence comes as vaccination rates have tumbled nationwide in recent years.

Testing LAX’s long-awaited train

• LAX’s 2.25-mile electric train system will begin running without passengers next week as testing advances following a series of delays.
• The Automated People Mover system began construction in 2019 and was initially slated to open to the public in 2023.

Nationwide recall of a popular anxiety drug

• Specific bottles of Xanax, one of the most widely prescribed medications to treat anxiety and panic disorders, has been recalled due to its failure to dissolve at a standard rate.
• FDA officials are not warning against consuming the product at this time.

What else is going on

Commentary and opinions

This morning’s must-read

Another must-read

For your downtime

Reporter Deborah Vankin gets a massage by an “Aescape” robot at Pause Wellness Studio.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

A question for you: Are you planning on leaving California for another state? If so, tell us why.

Laura says, “I left California during the pandemic. Part of the push factor for me was politics, but not blue politics. I had been living in OC since 2018 and was surprised it was so Conservative (and conservative). That became a bigger source of discomfort for me as the vaccine question demonstrated how our neighbors’ decisions can impact us directly. Rather than moving elsewhere in California, which would have sorted out the political discomfort nicely, I moved to a much more affordable state where I had family.”

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally … from our archives

Kendrick Lamar performs at Coachella Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 16, 2017.

(Amy Harris / Invision / AP)

On April 16, 2018, Compton’s own Kendrick Lamar became the first hip-hop artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

He won for his album “Damn.,” which the Times’ Mikael Wood heralded as Lamar’s graduation to pop superstardom.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Jim Rainey, staff reporter
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.

“WHAT will we be cooking today?” I asked.

“Any Moroccan dish you’d like,” my host, Mohamed, grinned.

My eyes lit up, growing larger than my stomach. I was in his family home and we had just returned from the souks of Fes to buy fresh ingredients for our feast.

I had watched Mohamed expertly barter down the price of meats, olives and grains. The sights and smells of the markets were as lively as you’d expect.

Street cats gathered under the butcher’s stall, gazing up longingly for a spare scrap of meat.

Flatbreads were slid into wood-fired ovens with the warm waft of freshly-made dough.

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Behind the vegetable stand, a Premier League match played on a fuzzy old TV, the grocer keeping one eye on the game and one on the giant tomatoes he was weighing.

Back in their kitchen, Mohamed and his wife Jessica worked all six hobs in a perfectly-coordinated dance, darting between pots and pans to stir and toss in spices.

The couple host home cooking classes via the experiences site GetYourGuide, and you’d struggle to find a more authentic Moroccan experience for £34.

I chopped vegetables for a tagine, occasionally ditching the dicing to dance along to traditional music in an impromptu kitchen disco.

By the time dinner was served, we’d gone from strangers to friends.

This was just one of three local expert-led experiences I undertook in Fes, known as the cultural capital of Morocco. The city, which was previously the country’s actual capital, is a history-lover’s dream.

It’s home to the largest and oldest medina in the world, which is a maze to explore, with 9,000 narrow streets jam-packed with people.

So I was thankful to have an expert to show me around on a walking tour for my second excursion.

Local guide Fatah made sure to stop by all of the city’s key landmarks. We began at the Royal Palace gates, where seven grand, golden doors stood framed by intricate green and blue mosaics.

Next was the Mellah, or Jewish Quarter. Here, wooden balconies jut out over sun-dappled streets, housing the best handmade jewellery and metalcraft in town.

When it comes to exploring the ancient medina, the entrance alone is enough to take your breath away.

The grand Bab Boujloud gate welcomes you with its striking cobalt blue archway, a colour reflecting the famous pottery produced in Fes.

The medina is a wonderful whirlwind for the senses.

Inside its fortified walls, you’ll find donkeys transporting goods, as well as souks stocked with silks and spices.

And that freshly-baked bread scent follows you around the city, with 350 communal ovens marking each neighbourhood.

Fatah guided us to Mnebhi Palace, where an ordinary-looking brown door opens up to a lavish interior. Vivid geometric patterns jump out from the walls and a marble fountain at its centre is filled to the brim with rose petals.

I thought I recognised the bright pink patterned sofa sitting in the corner — it turns out Madonna had posted it on her Instagram a few months prior.

Next was the University of al-Qarawiyyin, the oldest higher education institution in the world. This beautiful building used to be a mosque and was founded in the 9th century.

We rounded up the walking tour with a visit to the Chouara Tannery, where leather goods have been hand-crafted for more than 1,000 years.

I was confused to be handed a sprig of fresh mint at the entrance, but the reason why soon became apparent — plenty of pigeon droppings are used in the leather tanning process!

Clutching the leaves to my nose, we head up to a viewing platform.

Here, you can look out over pools of vivid red, blue and purple dye, watching workers dip and soften the leather hides.

This view marked the end of the walking tour and I couldn’t believe the amount of value packed into an expert-led experience, which you can book from just £10.

My last activity was a hands-on pottery and mosaics workshop, starting with a tour of the studio to see the masters at work.

These artists are true professionals, constructing massive designs entirely from memory — no tracing or templates required. Then came my turn to hit the pottery wheel.

I had oodles of fun smoothing the clay into weird and wacky shapes, though I instantly knew that my work wouldn’t be sitting on their shelves any time soon.

But the endless supply of Moroccan mint tea and syrupy treats really sweetened the deal.

And at £35 with a handmade souvenir to take home, who can complain . . . 

When you think of your earliest memory of reality television, what comes to mind? Is it “The Real World,” “Survivor” or “The Bachelor”? Perhaps it’s other fare like “Project Runway” or one of the “Real Housewives” franchises.

Growing up in the ‘90s and early aughts, my first exposure to reality programming was MTV’s slate of shows like “Real World” and “Road Rules” — thanks to being the youngest of four siblings, I was exposed to shows that were, in hindsight, too risque for me at too young an age. But they left an indelible mark. I saw Irene McGee of “Real World: Seattle” get slapped by her roommate Stephen Williams, a moment that at the time sent shock waves. Genesis Moss, of the Boston cast, was one of my earliest exposures to a gay person on TV. And Melissa Howard of the New Orleans season showed me how you can be 5-foot-2 and unapologetically feisty — as someone with a similar build and demeanor, I took that to heart.

Over the years, I’ve sometimes dismissed reality TV because it felt a little too personal or a little too competitive. I often wonder about the psychological effect on participants as their lives are laid bare for all to see. However, I can’t deny their appeal and why fans have continued to gravitate toward these shows season after season. They make for excellent watercooler talk; in recent weeks, my co-workers and I have spoken endlessly about “The Bachelorette” and Taylor Frankie Paul, and who did or didn’t stay married from Season 10 of “Love Is Blind.”

Few of us knew in the early days what effect reality television would have on the culture or how it would create a new type of star. Reality TV personalities have become influencers, pop culture icons and even political figures. One is the president.

And many shows have not only endured, they’ve spawned universes, international adaptations and spinoffs. Bravo, a TV channel that used to focus on the performing arts, is now an unscripted powerhouse that even has its own convention, BravoCon, where its various universes come together in service of fans.

What does that say about us as viewers? There’s always been a fascination with peering into the lives of others, seeing how they react to everyday problems under the glare of a camera. Perhaps it is a way to deflect from the reality of our own lives, which under the guise of normalcy is straining with the weight of political upheaval and economic turmoil, not to mention personal strife. Seeing someone else onscreen deal with their reality is sometimes the best escape.

So like it or not, reality television is here to stay.