Panthers in the desert at Coachella

Collage by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Sometimes, what’s great for the music business isn’t always quite as beneficial for the general public. In recent years, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has become almost a commodity, now overrun with influencers, brand trips and instagrammable photo ops. 

What you’re wearing is almost as important as who you’re seeing, and the cost of the weekend is barely attainable for most people — with some resale tickets reaching over $1,000, not to mention the additional costs of shuttle passes, food and accommodations. It forces us to ask: is Coachella still worth it? 

Coachella, a music and arts festival started in 1999, has become one of the world’s most popular annual events. What once started as a humble two-day gathering of music fans in Indio, California has since boomed into something much bigger, bringing more than 160 music artists and over 250,000 fans to the Empire Polo Club over two weekends in April. 

Despite the obstacles, the appeal of Coachella still motivates many Chapman students to make the 111 mile drive for a weekend of good company and great music in the desert. The Panther interviewed four senior students with varying levels of familiarity at Coachella to hear about their honest experiences at the 2026 festival. 

Overall Experience

Fede Rojas, a business administration major and first time attendee at Coachella, rated his experience a 5 out of 5 despite some difficulties. 

“The only real issue I had was when I lost the group I was with for three hours on the first day. It’s literally impossible to try and find people because there’s no service and so many people walking around,” said Rojas.

Natalie Glausi is a public relations, advertising and entertainment marketing major who has gone to Coachella the past four years. She also rated her experience a 5 out of 5. 

Caroline Kundahl, a strategic and corporate communications major, attended the festival for the first time this year, rating it a 5 out of 5 as well. 

“Coachella absolutely exceeded my expectations and was truly an incredible experience,” said Kundahl. 

Carson Schweickert, a business administration major and Coachella first-timer, rated his experience a — you guessed it — 5 out of 5. 

“I would give it a six out of five if I could,” Schweickert said.

Accommodations

Rojas stayed in an Airbnb with his roommates. 

“I have no regrets,” Rojas said. “From what my roommates told me about last year and from what my friends told me about this year, getting an Airbnb and splitting it was definitely the move.”

Glausi opted to camp with a group of around 40 people, as she has in previous years. However, inclement weather and long security lines posed added difficulties. 

“We got in line for security at around 3 a.m., and my specific car didn’t make it through security until 7:15 a.m. It took four hours because they checked every single car super thoroughly,” Glausi said.

For Glausi’s group, “day zero” of the festival (Thursday) was spent catching up on sleep and preparing the campsite, though the mostly smooth start didn’t last. By the end of day one, Glausi and a friend returned early to find the site in disarray. 

“We were the first two to get back to the site, and (found) one of our tents flipped over a car. Three of them were completely blown away,” she said. “We had no idea where they were, and we were literally like, ‘What do we do?’ When our friends came back that night, we did our best to help them put their tents back together. By the time we were leaving on Monday morning, everybody’s stuff was gone, whether they had packed it up or the wind had blown it away.”

Kundahl shared an Airbnb with one of her roommates and other friends, ultimately squeezing nine girls into a house intended for four people. For the group, the lower cost was worth sacrificing space. 

“It had a large living room where we put air mattresses, a full kitchen and mirrors everywhere, so honestly it didn’t feel crammed and was a great set up for the weekend,” Kundahl said.

Schweickert stayed in a Vrbo walking distance from the Polo Club. 

“We booked extremely far in advance to get a place close enough to the festival, and it ended up being worth it,” he said.

Travel

Travel surrounding the festival can be notoriously difficult, whether just getting down to Indio or to and from festival sets. 

For Rojas, planning ahead was key to getting around Coachella efficiently. 

“We’d rather not pay over $100 for an uber and have to wait two hours after the festival,” he said. “Some of us ended up driving to the festival, but others ended up just taking our bikes. It was only a 20 to 30 minute bike ride (from the Airbnb).”

One perk to camping: the ease of travel and proximity to the music. Staying on the festival grounds, Glausi had easy access to the sets and found it painless to get to and from the stages. 

Kundahl and her friends left Indio early Monday morning to come back to Orange and were able to avoid traffic, though not everyone was as lucky. 

“I know people who left later in the day and got stuck in traffic, and it ended up taking them five hours to get home,” she said.

On the other hand, Schweickert hit traffic on the front end while driving down to the festival. 

“We left at around 2 p.m. on Thursday and definitely hit some traffic,” he said. “Overall, though, the drive wasn’t too bad.”

Favorite Coachella Set

“My favorite set was Subtronics because I didn’t think I would like it at all; I’ve always thought that I didn’t like dubstep, but that set completely changed my mind on it,” said Rojas. “I also really liked Disclosure, but I knew that I would like them because I saw them at Hard Summer two years ago, and they had one of the best sets I’ve ever seen. And then my sleeper pick of the festival was Prospa — they absolutely killed it this year.”

“My favorite night was probably The Strokes followed by Justin Bieber,” said Glausi. “I stayed an hour between sets to secure my spot, and I felt like it was just a wholesome night.”

“My favorite set was Disclosure,” said Kundahl. “The mix of electronic music with live instruments was amazing to see in person. Also, they brought out Khalid for ‘Talk,’ and I was obsessed with Khalid in middle and high school, so that felt very full circle.”

“Subtronics, Levity, Swae Lee, Hamdi and Knock 2 were my favorites of the weekend,” said Schweickert. 

Luckily for our Panthers, any difficulties they faced over the weekend didn’t put a damper on the experience. Music filled the air, friends were near and, in the end, the memories made far outweighed any hiccups along the way.