On April 10, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival returned to the Empire Polo Club of Indio, Calif. in a celebration of R&B and pop music. With over 160 artists performing, this year’s headliners include Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G. The three are joined on the roster by big names like Addison Rae, FKA Twigs and Teddy Swims.
For night one, Carpenter transformed the stage into her own world which she called, “Sabrinawood,” in reference to its replication of Hollywood. She took her fans on a journey through decades and scenes to accompany them through her discography. Her set featured many tracks from her newest album “Man’s Best Friend,” including hit “Manchild” and the danceworthy “Tears.” Carpenter also went back to the start of her career to perform hits like “because i liked a boy” from “emails i can’t send” and “Feather” from the same album’s deluxe edition, “emails i can’t send fwd:.”
“I like how she did a twist on her performance,” said environmental science senior Jennifer Arena. “And the sets that she had, like the beginning one where she was in the car. That was so cool.”
Making her way through Sabrinawood, Carpenter was joined by several surprise guests. Will Ferrell joined her on stage as the set’s comedic electric producer, alongside Susan Sarandon as Carpenter’s older self and Corey Fogelmanis, her former “Girl Meets World” co-star, as the drive through waiter who interrupted Sarandon’s interlude speech, leading into Carpenter’s performance of “Go Go Juice.”
Bieber shattered a number of records on night two of the festival, not only with his performance, but also with the most merchandise sales with his clothing brand, SKYLRK. They reached $5.04 million in sales over the first weekend, which surpassed the festival’s previous two-weekend record of $1.7 million. Bieber was also reported to have been the highest paid headliner to date, having been compensated $10 million to headline both weekends and generated the highest ticket demand and priciest tickets sold. His performance was the most viewed in Coachella history.
Bieber’s set consisted of songs like “ALL I CAN TAKE” and “405” from his newest album “SWAG,” before he sat down for a casual YouTube guided set of throwbacks from his post-discovery era including “That Should be Me” from “My World 2.0” and “Beauty and a Beat” from “Believe.”
Colombian artist Karol G took the stage that Sunday as Coachella’s first ever Latina headliner. She was joined by an all-female mariachi band and guest stars including Becky G and Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez. She performed tracks off of her latest album, “Tropicoqueta,” including “LATINA FOREVA” and “Bandita Entrenada” and teased an unreleased song titled “Después de ti.”
The headliners weren’t the only ones to impress. Global girl group KATSEYE’s Friday performance wowed with tracks including “Gabriella” and “Internet Girl,” as well as a special guest appearance by the voices behind “K-Pop Demon Hunters’s” HUNTR/X to perform the film’s song “Golden.”
The festival continued from April 17 through 19 with the same headliners.
