Coachella started strong this year, with a Friday featuring numerous much-anticipated performances — including festival debut sets by breakout artists, festival return sets by longtime favorites, and a headlining debut set by an artist who predicted her eventual top-of-the-bill status during her most recent Coachella performance two years prior.
It was a very hot and sunny day in the desert, with both the Coachella powers that be and numerous artists on stage repeatedly reminding attendees to stay hydrated. However, by night, things had cooled and gotten particularly windy, which led to perhaps the day’s lone major disappointment — the last-minute canceling of Anyma Presents: ÆDEN, the much-hyped midnight dance set supposed to see day one out, which reportedly had the plug pulled on it due to the windy conditions.
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Still, the day was a packed one — even Anyma fans still had the choice of going to see either Gordo, alt-R&B fixture Blood Orange or rap hitmaker Sexyy Red at midnight instead of the dance duo, which would be very strong backup options for just about any kind of music fan. And there were still great dance moments earlier in the day, as well as plenty of memorable on-stage happenings from the worlds of rock and pop, which appear to be the two genres most firmly at the festival’s core as of 2026.
Here are 10 of our staffers’ picks for the most memorable moments from the first day of Coachella 2026, officially the festival’s 25th edition, with plenty more such moments no doubt to follow on Saturday and Sunday.
Slayyyter Seizes the Moment
It’s always a special thing when a festival gets an artist at the exact right time — and through some combination of good luck, thoughtful vision and sheer volume shooting, Coachella does seem to land this type of artist more often than most other festivals. That was certainly the case on Friday with Slayyyyter, whose Worst Girl in America album his become her most-hyped and highest-charting, and who really seems to be capturing the public’s imagination right now. The most rewarding part was undoubtedly her performance of the thunderous “I’m Actually Kind of Famous,” sounding like she believes the title more with every utterance, and rightly so. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
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Wednesday Screams It Out
At the end of its set inside the Sonora Tent, indie rock band Wednesday instructed its more dedicated fans to open up a pit at the front, because they were about to hit the “all bangers” closing portion of its setlist. That included “Bull Believer” from the acclaimed Rat Saw God album, whose largely screamed climax provides one of the truly transcendent moments in 2020s indie rock — one which Karly Hartzman currently has particular recipients in mind for. “I would like to dedicate that scream to the sentiment of ‘F–k ICE’ and free Palestine,” she clarified. — A.U.
Teddy Swims Might as Well Jump
Making his Coachella debut, the mighty-lunged singer justified — for those in need of proof — his Hot 100 staying power via his sunset main stage set. Combining a gravelly twang, lyrical vulnerability and mic-front charisma, Teddy Swims both personified bulletproof pop radio excellence and paid homage to it by bringing out some of the shoulders upon which he stood. Welcoming special guests onto the stage with a cheekily self-aware doorbell for each, Swims did a sweet, soaring duet with Vanessa Carlton on the crowd-pleasing “A Thousand Miles” and a similarly exuberant “Jump” alongside a blonde and ever-swaggering David Lee Roth. Appropriately, he then continued the show with his own marquee contribution to the canon, “Lose Control,” before riding off the stage on an adult-sized tricycle. – KATIE BAIN
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Devo Whips Flower Pot Hats Good
You know it’s on with Devo when the flower pot hats come out. Three or four songs into its set at the Mojave Tent on Friday, the band hit a new gear as its members each slowly donned the headware that became iconic for the new wave stalwarts and the entire 1980s during the Freedom of Choice era. As the band launched into its classic “Girl U Want” and “Whip It” singles from that album, frontman Mark Mothersbaugh frisbeed a handful of the hats into the crowd, to rapturous cheers and lovably awkward dance moves from those in attendance. — A.U.
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The xx Makes Its Coachella Return
After the trio played its first show together in eight years this past February, The xx’s sunset hour show on Friday was effectively a new-gen Coachella reunion gig, and also its first appearance at the festival since 2017. While the band — Romy Madley Croft, Jamie xx and Oliver Sims — have confirmed they’re working on a new album, the setlist leaned into the group’s classics, including 2012’s “Angels” and “Fiction” and 2009’s “Shelter” and “VCR,” along with Romy’s own solo “Enjoy Your Life” from her 203 album Mid Air and Jamie xx’s “Treat Each Other Right” from his 2024 set In Waves. All three members were dressed in black, with Madley Croft commenting that “we have been dreaming about this moment for such a long time, I can’t tell you how beautiful the view is with the light.” — K.B.
John Summit Makes a Cameo
One of the biggest sets of day one wasn’t on the schedule, with John Summit playing a surprise set on the dance-focused Do Lab stage. Fans received a message from the Do Lab alerting them of the performance, causing a flood of highly excited people to congregate at the stage just as Summit came onstage around 8 p.m. The reason for the appearance was Summit’s imminent new album, CTRL ESCAPE, coming April 15. The album’s office worker aesthetic was portrayed on stage via a pair of giant prop keyboard keys, with Summit playing new music from the album along with his own essentials like “Shiver,” “Crystallized” and “Go Back,” new fan favorite (and CTRL ESCAPE’s lead single) “Lights Go Out” and dance classics like Todd Terry’s remix of Everything But the Girl’s “Missing” and The Chemical Brothers’ “Hey Boy Hey Girl.” — K.B.
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Turnstile Loves Us (And We Love Them)
Baltimore punk rockers Turnstile began their Friday night set with a heartfelt video montage of fans describing the energy of one of the band’s gigs. Love, community and connection were all common themes expressed by the people in the video. Lead singer Brendan Yates’ father — who was allegedly run over by the band’s ex guitarist just one week prior to Coachella — closed out the video, letting the audience know that “we love you and Turnstile love you.” The love was truly felt throughout the band’s performance. As KATSEYE performed across the Polo Field, a sizable crew of dedicated Turnstile fans planted their feet by the Outdoor Stage, sung their hearts outs, moshed and picked one another up during the band’s nearly hour-long set.
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Turnstile opened with the title track of its 2025 album, “Never Enough,” before playing songs from that record and its predecessor Glow On, and ending with their Grammy Award-winning hit “Birds.” A fun surprise for the audience, fellow Day One performer Blood Orange joined the group for a performance of “Seein’ Stars.” At all points throughout their set, Turnstile felt connected to the audience and the audience members felt connected to the band and one another. This was especially evident when thousands of people jumped up and down and yelled at Yates and co. “I want to thank you for letting me see myself.”
And see themselves the crowd did, as the band’s videographers spent the entire set filming the audience from within the mosh pit for the big screen. It was a questionably unsafe decision that ultimately paid off, and made the experience feel even more immersive as the pit was reflected back to its thrashing members. Although Turnstile was not a main stage headliner at Coachella, for that one hour, you couldn’t convince a single audience member that the band wasn’t at the top of the festival lineup. — ANNIE HARRIGAN
KATSEYE’s “Golden” Moment
KATSEYE’s Coachella debut had no shortage of memorable moments, from the action-packed set-opening live debut of new single “Pinky Up” to Lara dramatically licking Megan’s face during “MIA,” to of course the unmentioned absence of the recently-placed-on-hiatus Manon from the entire performance. But when the ladies of HUNTR/X are in the building in 2026 — and particularly when they’re doing “Golden” — they still steal the show every time. So that’s exactly what happened when the opening strains of “Golden” gave way to EJAE, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna unexpectedly appearing on stage with the now-five members of KATSEYE, all singing the confirmed classic as the combined eight members celebrated their shared moment. — A.U.
Sabrina Carpenter Turns Coachella Into ‘SABRINAWOOD’
There was a lot to feast on in the visuals to Sabrina Carpenter’s awesome first headlining performance at Coachella on Friday: countless dance numbers and costume changes and different set designs. But the image that will most likely end up its most indelible was the revelation of a “SABRINAWOOD” sign during her performance of “When Did You Get Hot?,” which she walked over and around throughout that song and for much of the set’s remainder. The sign of course alludes to Carpenter bringing all of Southern California under her domain during the duration of her Coachella run — but of course there’s also a little Beavis & Butthead to the “wood” part, and we’re confident Sabrina’s not mad at that either. — A.U.
Creepy Nuts ‘Rap Really F–king Good’ at First North American Show
Japanese duo Creepy Nuts played Coachella as part of its first-ever North American tour, bringing a spirit of delight and a lot of dancing to an engaged audience in the Gobi tent. “I don’t speak good English,” frontman R-Shitei told the crowd towards the end of the show, “but I rap really f–king good.” And so he did as the duo — R-Shitei and DJ Matsunaga — tore through a set that seemed to take inspiration from The Prodigy, Skrillex and Korn (as well as more traditional styles) all at once. If you’re going next weekend, don’t miss them. – K.B.
