The 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival wraps its first weekend on Sunday, April 14, with Doja Cat’s return to the desert for her first time headlining the event.
Other artists include Victoria Monét, Reneé Rapp, J Balvin and Bebe Rexha.
It has been a big weekend of music in the desert. Tyler, the Creator, had a guest-filled spectacle that included a bighorn sheep to top Saturday night after No Doubt performed a set of its biggest hits for the first time in nine years with a little help from Olivia Rodrigo.
Taylor Swift didn’t join Bleachers on stage, but she was watching from the side with Travis Kelce on Saturday evening and Billie Eilish showed up for a surprise in the Do Lab.
And that was after big sets from Lana Del Rey and Peso Pluma on Friday.
Follow along with The Times’ August Brown, Danielle Dorsey, Vanessa Franko and Mikael Wood, who are on the ground in Indio for the final day of the fest’s first weekend.
1:30 p.m. The Do Lab is often described as the festival within the festival at Coachella. In its early years, it was located smack in the middle of the grounds, a beaconing festival-goers with beats, cirque performances and the all-important misters.
The Do Lab’s popularity has grown substantially since it first debuted at Coachella in 2004 and now has its own dedicated area to accommodate 15,000 fans at any given point during the festival.
That space is also known for hosting an impressive list of surprise guests, this year is no exception. Among those who dropped in this year were DJ Pee .Wee (Anderson .Paak) and Sofi Tukker on Friday and 2022 headliner Billie Eilish on Saturday.
The brothers behind the Do Lab, L.A.-based Dede, Jesse, and Josh Flemming, work together to design a whimsical space with an ever-improving concert experience that also provides a respite from the sun.
“We focus on shade primarily and water and misting. We have to pay attention to lighting and sound,” Josh Flemming said.
Even with those practical elements, what makes Do Lab special is the colorful stage build. This year, there are structures of covered by fabric in shades of blue, orange, yellow and red that Josh Flemming described as “10 massive mushrooms.”
“We are the most colorful thing out there. We want people to feel like they almost went through a portal,” Jesse Flemming said.
And if you can’t get enough of the Do Lab vibes at Coachella, check out Lightning in a Bottle, the Do Lab’s own festival, which returns to Buena Vista Lake in Kern County May 22-27. —Vanessa Franko
Food reporter Danielle Dorsey, left, does a taste test with DJ Will Clarke at Saucetails brought to you by Postmates at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Sunday, April 14, 2024 in Indio, CA.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
2 p.m. It’s DJ Will Clarke’s first time as a bonafide Coachella performer, though he’s graced the Do Lab stage in past years. The U.K- and Detroit-based DJ who also runs a food-focused Instagram played in the Yuma tent on Saturday, but we met up early Sunday afternoon to take a tour through Postmates’ Sauce Bar in the 12 Peaks VIP Area. The yellow-and-orange shaded structure feels like stepping into the sun and felt at least 10 degrees hotter than our perfect mid-70s reality.
Diners can choose between fries, tots or a combination of both before adding on sauces that pull from some of L.A.’s most iconic eateries, such as BBQ sauce from Bludso’s and a collaboration ghost chile sriracha with producer Benny Blanco. Blanco’s dip turned out to be our favorite of the five options, with the honey mustard coming in second. The real pro move is to dip your fries or tots into the sriracha followed by the honey mustard to slightly temper the heat. We both agreed that Blanco’s sriracha sauce would be ideal with hot wings. Maybe Postmates will incorporate our feedback before coming back for Weekend 2. —Danielle Dorsey
