Coachella 2025: 10 most memorable moments from both weekends of the festival
This is the most wide-ranging Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in recent years.
One weekend it was 100 degrees by day. The next weekend it was in the 50s at night. The festival featured characters from a TV show for kids, "Yo Gabba Gabba," and also saw an 83-year-old senator from Vermont give a politically charged speech. Yes, we felt the burn and the Bern.
The only real consistent element to the two weekends was the notion that Flavor Flav would show up during someone's set to say "Flay-vor Flav!"
It was six wild and weird days, with some iconic musical performances mixed in. Here are 10 moments that added brushstrokes to the Picasso painting that was Coachella 2025.
Lady Gaga's cinematic set has us calling this Gagachella
There's no doubt that Lady Gaga's set will go down in festival lore as one of the greatest of all time. Gaga turned the Coachella Stage into her own personal horrifying, exhilarating, emotional, goofy (skeleton dance), spooky playground. Watching everything she did in two hours without missing a step, a beat, a note or a moment is remarkable. It was a nice redemption to see a full-scale glimpse into her creative mind after her 2017 headlining set was a bit watered down as she only had two months to prepare for it as a late fill-in for Beyoncé.
Speaking of Beyoncé, we ran a poll on X after Gaga's performance asking if it was so good that it might have eclipsed Beyoncé's 2018 performance that is universally believed to be the best of all time. Of course, there is recency bias to factor in, but after 1,529 votes, a whopping 76% said Lady Gaga is the new queen to 24% for Beyoncé. We don't know if we'd go that far, but just the fact that we have to ask the question is evidence enough to show how epic Gaga's headlining set was.
— Shad Powers
Bernie Sanders drops in for a little (political) heart-to-heart
As people cruised around the grounds after Charli XCX's set on the first Saturday around 8:15 p.m. and walked toward the Outdoor Theatre, they probably thought to themselves "somebody get Clairo a lozenge." That's because the voice coming from that stage was not the 26-year-old female singer, but instead 83-year-old senator Bernie Sanders. He spoke for nearly four minutes to the crowd of young attendees urging them to become more politically attentive, particularly to the issues that affect their lives. It was one of the most out-of-nowhere Coachella moments we can think of in recent years. We try to predict what special guests will perform with the scheduled artists, let's just say no one had Sanders on their radar.
— Shad Powers
Green Day proves why they should have headlined years ago
Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day have been churning out pulse-pounding punk hits for four decades, so it's pretty stunning that they had never been asked or never accepted an invitation from the festival until this year. But they were worth the wait. Providing a bucket list moment for many fans, Green Day stormed through their hits, with fireworks accentuating certain beats that had the crowd jumping, singing in unison and even contributing as Armstrong brought fans out of the crowd to sing and play the guitar both weekends. They didn't do a lot of theatrics, just hard-charging fun. They snuck in a few political jabs with some reimagining of some of their lyrics, but mostly focused on the rockin' and not the politickin'.
— Shad Powers
Cynthia Erivo drops in for a 'Wicked' surprise with LA Phil
You know how the tumblers in a slot machine sort of, well tumble, and then fall into place? Now imagine a big Coachella slot machine where the first slot is an artist, the second slot is a song and the third slot is a backing band. Let's pull the lever and see what random moment we can come up with. OK, and what did we land on? We've got Cynthia Erivo, singing Purple Rain, with the L.A. Philharmonic. Huh? OK. It was surprising (though our Features Editor Niki Kottmann predicted Erivo would show up in some capacity days before), but just as epic as you might imagine. The Weekend 2 crowd got a treat for sure as Erivo belted her way through the song as the sun went down. It may have been the best singular moment of the fest.
— Shad Powers
Lisa and Jennie offer up a stellar Blackpink sampler platter
The K-pop girl group Blackpink headlined Coachella in 2023, but this year, two of the four girls that made up the group left their bandmates behind and played solo acts. Lisa, coming in hot off her acting performance as Mook on "White Lotus" was a big hit at the Sahara tent with crowds overflowing the sides both Fridays. Then Jennie did her thing on both Sundays at the Outdoor Theatre. It's kind of fun to see the subtle differences as they branch out with different styles. Lisa still leans a lot into the dancing and performance aspect, while Jennie is more comfortable with the mic in her hand.
— Shad Powers
Charli XCX brings out the holy trinity of special guests
As the Coachella team editor I spend a lot of the festival in the press tent, but both Saturdays I specifically scheduled my day around Charli XCX's set, and I was never disappointed. The hyperpop queen, whose star rose even higher last year with the release of her viral album "Brat," has better stage presence than most of the performers I've ever seen, and she has that unique ability to get an entire field of people screaming and jumping (in a good way) while singing along to every chorus. Those screams got louder and jumps got even higher during the Weekend 1 set in particular when she brought out buddy Troye Sivan for "Talk, talk"; Lorde for their hit remix "Girl, so confusing"; and finally Billie Eilish for their bop "Guess."
I'm not sure I've ever screamed louder for any other special guests ... that is until the same exact set during Weekend 2, when the screen flashed to "SNL" star Bowen Yang and his bff/business partner Matt Rogers in the front row during "Apple" so Yang could perform the iconic "Apple" dance. Yang and Roger's podcast, "Las Culturistas," is my all-time favorite, and I still haven't fully recovered from the high of seeing them onscreen during one of my favorite sets of the four Coachella fests I've attended.
— Niki Kottmann
When Lola Young, Jennie and Shaboozey got vulnerable
It’s hard to comprehend what it must be like to perform at Coachella, headliner or not. So, when the artists who we’re paying to see share that they too are just barely wrapping their heads around the experience, it’s refreshing.
Like when “Messy” singer Lola Young was honest about nerves — seemingly even getting sick during her Coachella Weekend 1 performance — and yet pushed through to display her incredible talent both weekends. Or when Shaboozey, whose star has risen thanks to his hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” appeared to get briefly emotional during his Coachella Weekend 2 set.
The singer recalled how years ago, he’d wished he could play at Coachella and now, he was performing on the main stage. His voice trembled as he thanked the crowd for changing his life, stepping away briefly from the microphone as he quickly swiped at his eyes with one hand.
“My journey up here was not easy,” he said. “There’s multiple times where I thought about giving up or people told me I should go home or something like that and I stayed to it, and because of y’all’s support, man, I’m up here.”
There was also Jennie, who said that performing at Coachella felt like a “dream” and took the time to thank her crew, backup dancers and vocalists — the latter especially notable for someone who is no newbie to massive fame and yet took a moment to give recognition to the people all involved in making her set what it was.
— Paris Barraza
Benson Boone leans into Freddie Mercury comparisons, brings Brian May out
Coachella newcomer Benson Boone had one of the best sets of the first weekend, and one of the biggest moments of the festival came when Brian May joined him onstage to play the Queen hit "Bohemian Rhapsody." It was, as one of our reporters said, "pretty epic."
Coachella has been known for years for its guest appearances, and Boone bringing May onstage for that song, with many in the crowd singing passionately along, will be remembered for a long time (despite the fact that some attendees seemed too young to know/appreciate May, leading Boone to post a silly video to TikTok with the message "Me trying to get the crowd at Coachella to understand what an absolute legend Brian May is and the cultural impact he has had on music and THE WORLD.")
— Andrew John
Last-minute lineup adds Ed Sheeran and Weezer kick their respective Saturdays off the right way
When the Coachella 2025 set times dropped on April 5, fans had to look closely to notice that each Saturday of the festival, a different band not originally on the lineup had been slid into a 3 p.m. slot in the Mojave tent.
We're happy to report that both Weezer and Ed Sheeran rocked their respective semi-surprise sets, reminding us why they honestly should have been on a much larger stage, but why seeing them in a more intimate part of the venue made the experience all the more special.
Grammy-winning rock band Weezer has headlined Coachella previously, and it's clear why. The band played one of the better sets of the first weekend, amid what is surely a difficult time for bassist Scott Shriner, whose wife was involved in an altercation with the Los Angeles Police Department just a few days prior that ended with her getting shot and then arrested.
The band still rocked out, playing 12 songs in 45 minutes. The setlist included many of Weezer's biggest hits, and also included a rare cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." The crowd went particularly wild for that gem.
Ed Sheeran, for his part, showed authenticity, wore his heart on his sleeve and displayed sheer talent during his hour-long show Weekend 2, reminding us that he's the real deal and part of the "A Team" of musicians working today.
While most performers have backup singers, a backing track, or a live band with them, Sheeran was on his own during his set, using his vocals, a keyboard, a guitar, and a looping station to create the beat of each song. It was impressive to see him create each part, from the bass to the background vocals, and know exactly when each section needed to come in. As each song slowly built up, it got people hyped up, making the lead-up to the chorus so much sweeter.
— Andrew John and Ema Sasic
All the elder musicians who got their flowers, from Queen Latifah to The Original Misfits
Coachella 2025, in a lot of ways, felt like the perfect balance of old and new. While we got to see rising stars like Benson Boone skyrocket even further into fame during their Coachella debuts, we also got to watch artists who've been around the block get their flowers — and hopefully expand their reach to a new generation.
Missy Elliott, who had never performed at the festival previously, opted for a set without special guests in a move that showed she's one of the most revered women in her genre, and she doesn't need a collaborator to help prove it. The Original Misfits proved they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but their loud, high-intensity show both Saturdays left a mark on a festival that has steered away from its rock roots for the past decade or so, but is slowly starting to book acts that let that rock heritage live on (even if some of the frontmen are low-key conspiracy theorists cough Glenn Danzig cough).
Even newer artists like Megan Thee Stallion got in on the multigenerational fun by bringing out iconic hip-hop star Queen Latifah to sing Megan's "Plan B" and Latifah's own Grammy Award-winning song “U.N.I.T.Y.” Meg gave the Queen her moment, but also jumped in on the latter song, offering the best of both worlds as the crowd (and YouTube livestream) went crazy.
— Niki Kottmann