Stars such as Lady Gaga, Charli xcx, Ed Sheeran and Missy Elliott will face blazing temperatures this weekend at an unusually hot Coachella festival.
The California-based festival will soar to potentially record-breaking highs of 103F (over 39C) in its first of two consecutive weekends, about 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than what’s typically expected at this time of year.
The festival, which usually attracts around 125,000 people a day, is following a year that saw its slowest sales to date, headlined by Doja Cat, Lana del Rey and Tyler, the Creator. The 2025 edition is being viewed by some as an unofficial comeback with headliners Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone, who together boast 24% higher global Spotify streams than the previous trio.
Gaga previously headlined Coachella in 2017, when she also filmed scenes for A Star Is Born. In a recent interview, she said she would focus on her new album, Mayhem, but also give fans the older hits they want. She said she saw it as “an opportunity to do something unique and special” but remained tightlipped about specifics.
“I genuinely don’t want to give anything away about Coachella,” she said. “I know that is heartless of me, in a way, but I could honestly cry on the phone with you just thinking about how excited I am to do this show, and I want it to be a total surprise, and want everyone to have as much fun as possible.”
The lineup boasts a wide variety of acts from different genres and eras. The newer guard is represented by Lola Young, Shaboozey, Amyl and the Sniffers, Rema, underscores and Glorilla, while nostalgia plays are led by Jimmy Eat World, Missy Elliott, Kraftwerk, Basement Jaxx and the Go-Gos.
The weekend will also see the Prodigy play, returning to Coachella for the first time since Keith Flint died in 2019. “I will say that us carrying on isn’t a Keith tribute show,” band member Liam Howlett recently told the Los Angeles Times. “We want to honor him, and we will continue to do that, because Keith is more than just a person they saw on stage. Even though he wasn’t a musician, he was such an important person in the studio as a right-hand man.”
Another throwback act playing is Weezer, a band who have been making headlines this week after bassist Scott Shriner’s wife, Jillian Lauren, was shot by police. Reports claim that she aimed a handgun at officers as they investigated an unrelated hit-and-run incident and she is now being charged with attempted murder.
The band is still set to perform as scheduled with Scott saying “see you at Coachella” to journalists on Thursday.
One act who won’t be performing is FKA twigs, who was forced to pull out “due to ongoing visa issues” related to her production team reportedly failing to fill out the correct paperwork in time. The star wrote that she was “devastated” in an Instagram statement.
Rising costs and more complicated logistics have also caused trouble for other artists seeking visas to perform. “I just did visas for a Coachella band and it was $8,000,” a booking agency executive told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s becoming a huge financial hurdle because it takes so long through regular channels, you have to go for the heavy-duty expediting.”
