Time Is a Flat Circle in the Coachella Desert

It’s Monday in mid-April, also known as that brief nether-time between Coachella weekends. Historically, it’s a time when one pores over the artifacts from the festival’s first half, reliving the live streaming and scrolling through the photographs to see who was there wearing some outfit. It’s a time to remember the Coachellas of yore, and ask, Can you believe this is still part of our world? It’s been a thing for so long, and yet, it’s still a thing. Yes, inertia can still be surprising. 

The nearly 25-year-old music festival in the California desert paused for three years over the pandemic, before coming back in 2022. This is the first spring it feels like it’s back in full force though, with performances from Bad Bunny, Blackpink, and an odd one from Frank Ocean. These certainly are relevant acts that many were excited to see. But whether it’s because of the hiatus or for some other reason, the spring festival feels eternally like the 2010s. 

The celebrities, at least, seemed to be reliving the glory days. There were Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello making out like it was 2019 (the Couple broke up in 2021, and one anonymous source told Page Six that this did not mean they’re back together). Leonardo DiCaprio hung out with model Irina Shayk, coparent with Bradley Cooper, along with a “bevy of beauties” like it was 2013. Revolve “activated in the desert” again, while other brands “generated organic placements” with their own activations, as they did when Instagram was the new and exciting social media site. These are missives from another time.

One sign that Coachella does not simply exist as hologram beamed through Instagram from some time between 2012 and 2015 is this: 

There was a time when Vanessa Hudgens would move mountains to party in the desert. And now, for whatever reason, she had to miss weekend one. She’s practically abandoned her post! Was caught sleeping on the job! Has moved on! Except, well, there’s always weekend two for Hudgens, and as for the Groundhog Day of it all? At least she’s experiencing “FOMO,” a very 2014 emotion.