By Sydney Blake
The 2026 Coachella Music and Arts Festival succeeded my expectations. Normally I forget that it is coming around until I see posts online, but this year stood out to me.
The look of Coachella was beautiful with its cylinder building with rainbow colored glass featured every year along with other colorful landscape art that brought life into California’s Empire Polo Club located in the Colorado desert.
My satisfaction with the aesthetic continues with the festival goer’s outfits. Looking through influencers online, I noticed a lot of inspiration was taken from the style of 2016 Coachella. This can be seen in the boho style and head crowns; there were also layered pieces that had lowrise micro shorts or skirts.
I thought that this year’s outfits were done well, an example of this is the Kalogeras sisters, who are popular siblings on TikTok and Instagram. The three had low waisted skirts with small tops along with a chunky lowrise belt. Their outfits were also monochromatic with matching prints and colors.
Like seen with the Kalogeras sisters, the clothes had lace and leather fabrics, and the girls also utilized accessories to bring more character to their outfit with necklaces, rings, scarves wrapped around heads, sunglasses and hair clips.
Another outfit theme that caught my eye was the mermaid style that had flowy skirts with more pops of color such as pink, blue and sparkles. I also enjoyed the cowboy look with denims, cowboy boots and hats, thick belts and more statement pieces like bold chunky jewelry.
One of the weirdest and most uncomfortable looking outfits of the musical festival was Lele Pons and Hannah Stocking’s white and red dress that was knitted together. The dresses didn’t match the vibe of a dessert party atmosphere, and seemed more unnecessary and attention seeking.
The outfits of Coachella this year felt more organized because the majority were worn on specific days depending on the performer. The more girly outfits, such as the mermaid ones, were worn on the first day when Sabrina Carpenter performed. Carpenter’s sets were fun and exciting especially when Madonna appeared as a special guest during her set. The two strutted the stage singing Madonna’s famous song “Like a Prayer.”
Another artist that stuck out to me was Karol G, a Latin singer that I wasn’t familiar with. Her use of space and set design on the stage was done amazingly with a colorful rock wall that had many people dancing in each panel. She herself danced on stage and had an exciting performance in her blue two piece with rainbow colors peaking on the bottom of her skirt. Her outfit reminded me a lot of the movie “Rio” with the bright colors and dance.
I had to save the best for last, which is Bieberchella, when Justin Bieber performed. If you are like me, then you had Bieber fever when you were growing up, and were excited to see that he played his old hits like “Beauty and the Beat,” “Sorry,” “Baby” and “One Less Lonely Girl,” where he pulled up Billie Eilish on stage. The set became emotional as Eilish has always been a fan of his.
I do have to acknowledge his performance went a little out of the ordinary when he projected his computer for the crowd and played videos of his younger self running into a glass door on repeat. Now some people thought this was a bad set and him being immature. Maybe, but I thought it was hilarious and nostalgic for his fans.
He made up for this screen-time section with his performance of “Daisies” where he used stage lights with smoke to create dramatic shadows making it surreal.
The overall experience was carried by Justin Bieber, which had people online talking the most, either posting memes or special moments from a fan perspective. Coachella usually feels the same each year, but 2026 was fun nostalgia and reclaimed the original festival feeling it once had a decade ago.
