Live updates from the 2023 Coachella Festival: Day 1
Welcome to live coverage of Day 1 of the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Friday’s headliner is the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, the first Spanish-language artist to top the festival’s bill, and, in another first, one of three nonwhite headliners this year: K-pop girl group Blackpink will take the main stage on Saturday night, and international man of mystery Frank Ocean will close out the festival Sunday with his first concert since 2019, and his first area show since 2017.
The 2023 edition of the wildly popular (and lucrative) festival follows a chaotic few years, for Coachella and more broadly for live music. In 2022, both Travis Scott and Kanye West pulled out of planned headline performances, while the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friday will feature highly anticipated sets from Gorillaz, Metro Boomin, Burna Boy, the Chemical Brothers, a reunited Blink-182, Wet Leg, Becky G, Yves Tumor, Kaytranada, Blondie, Doechii and many more, plus the usual parade of surprise guest stars (who gets custody of the Weeknd?), and The Times’ Mikael Wood, August Brown, Suzy Exposito, Kenan Draughorne and Vanessa Franko will be roaming the grounds of Indio’s Empire Polo Club, reporting on all the action as it happens.
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3:18 p.m. Greetings from Coachella, where the weather is already hot, the music is already loud and the outfits (costumes?) are already sparkly. Last year was technically the first year back after COVID, but there’s something in the air here that suggests people are ready to party like it’s 2019 again. Music-wise, everything’s leading up to Bad Bunny’s headlining performance tonight, though folks are buzzing too about Blink-182’s surprise reunion gig. “It’s gonna be so many songs that people know, bro,” I overheard one such bro testify in a drinks line, and indeed that’s true enough. Also: Who will Damon Albarn bring to the stage during Gorillaz’ set? The Times crew will be here for it all — stay tuned. — Mikael Wood
3:20 p.m. “There’s only one reason to be at Coachella today — Bad Bunny,” said Hugo Olguin, 42, of Murrieta, Calif.
The Friday night headliner was the catalyst for Olguin and Rocio Luis, 32, of Carlsbad, to make their first trip to the festival. They planned to catch the reunited Blink-182 — added to the festival lineup this week — in the Sahara Tent before staking out a good spot for Bad Bunny.
Even though Coachella only sells three-day passes, Olguin and Luis are attending Friday only.
“We can’t survive three days,” Olguin said. — Vanessa Franko
3:52 p.m. Among the banners trailing airplanes above the polo grounds — a venerable Coachella tradition — is this one promoting somebody’s OnlyFans account. Shrewd! — M.W.
4:15 p.m. Coachella is always a valuable learning experience in finding out which acts are far more popular than you thought. My first lesson this year: Benee, the New Zealand bedroom-pop singer who had an early-pandemic hit with “Supalonely,” is still capable of filling the not-small Mojave Tent. And “Supalonely” still sounds great. — M.W.
4:34 p.m. Started the day watching Doechii, who brought a healthy crowd to the main stage. TDE’s rising star tapped into her ballroom bag near the end, rapping Beyoncé’s final verse from “Heated,” a cappella-style, before launching into her breezy hit “Persuasive.” Her orange contact lenses were a nice touch to complete the purple crop-top-and-shorts combo. — Kenan Draughorne
4:40 p.m. Security guards are already passing out white light-up wristbands near the main stage ahead of Bad Bunny’s headlining performance tonight. — K.D.
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