As I scroll through the Coachella lineup on my phone, I realize the closest I am getting to the festival is through a screen. I can watch every clip, every livestream, and every outfit recap, but none of that feels the same as actually standing in the desert and hearing the music in person.

This year, especially, the festival feels impossible to ignore because the lineup is one of the strongest it has been in a long time. With artists like Swae Lee, PinkPantheress, Young Thug, and Justin Bieber on the poster, it is easy to understand why so many people are paying attention. 

Even just reading those names makes the festival feel huge. It is the kind of lineup that makes you stop scrolling for a second and imagine what it would be like to hear every song live with thousands of people around you. That is probably what makes watching from home so frustrating. The excitement is real, but the experience still feels far away. At the same time, that distance almost makes the performances seem more dramatic. 

When all you have are clips and reactions, every great moment feels even bigger because people online replay and repost it over and over again. Instead of disappearing after one set, the best performances spread across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and end up reaching people who were never planning on paying attention.

Seeing this lineup definitely made me jealous of the people who were actually going, but at the same time, I assumed some of these artists would avoid performing their biggest songs. I was wrong in the best way. Swae Lee performed “Black Beatles,” “Come Get Her,” “Swang,” and other hits, to the point that people started calling Coachella “Swaechella.” That nickname alone shows how much his performance stood out. 

Then Justin Bieber performed his most viral song, “Baby.” At first, his set seemed like a normal sing-along moment. But once he started singing “Beauty and a Beat,” the whole performance felt different. It became one of those moments that instantly takes people back to the feelings of the 2010’s nostalgia. 

Fans online said he switched back to his “old voice,” the one with that very specific 2016 nostalgic tone. Watching clips of it on my phone made me realize how much live performances can bring a song back to life. A song that might feel old or overplayed suddenly sounds exciting again when a crowd knows every lyric. That is part of what makes Coachella so powerful every year. 

The Coachella outfits were insane. It is great to see people express themselves through fashion because all the fits have been completely different. Some people lean into the classic festival look with boots, glitter, sunglasses, and layered jewelry, while others treat Coachella like a runway and show up in outfits that look custom-made for social media. Even when the clothes are not something I would personally wear, they show how creative people can be. 

Fashion has become such a huge part of the festival that sometimes it almost feels as important as the music itself. People are not just going to hear their favorite artists anymore. They are also going to be seen, to post their looks, and to become part of the overall Coachella image that spreads across the internet every year. 

Seeing so many content creators on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube show up at Coachella has definitely made me a little jealous, too. Some of my favorites have been Alix Earle, Charli D’Amelio, and Hailey Bieber, and part of what makes them interesting to watch is how they seem to capture the whole vibe of the festival, not just one part of it. They post the outfits, the crowds, the backstage moments, and the little details that make the event feel bigger than just a series of performances. For people watching at home, creators almost become part of the way the festival is experienced.

Even though I am not actually at Coachella experiencing the crazy concerts, the event still feels impossible to ignore. Through the livestreams, outfit posts, and viral performance clips, Coachella manages to pull people in even when they are watching from far away, even from a phone screen; it still feels huge, exciting, and worth paying attention to.