Snap, Crackle & Pop: What Coachella’s Early Lineup Announcement Means For The Biz

When Coachella announced its 2026 lineup this past Monday (Sept. 15), nearly four months earlier than usual, and a good seven months before it kicks off April 10-12 and 17-19, it caught many off guard. The 2025 lineup was announced in late November and previous editions were traditionally unveiled in January – with other festivals rolling out their lineups afterward.

The fest market over the last few years, however, has had its share of challenges. As reported in Pollstar ‘s Year-End issue, Coachella 2024’s slow first weekend sell-out and not selling out its second weekend was evidence of a struggling festival market. Last year, dozens of festivals— at least close to 90 — shut down for various reasons including Desert Daze, Electric Zoo, Firefly, Format Festival, Life Is Beautiful, Lollapalooza Paris & Stockholm, Lovers & Friends and Made In America, among others. Previously, Coachella, which now has a capacity of 125K a day, had such strong brand recognition that it was able to sell out before the lineup was even announced.

For some, Coachella’s early lineup announcement is seen as a positive, giving the promoter, AEG’s Goldenvoice, a better opportunity to sell out the festival.

“Announcing early allows them to capture the hype around fall tours currently playing out and to take advantage of the holiday spending season,” Josh Kurfirst, Partner and Global Head of Festivals at WME, told Pollstar. “However as with most festivals, the timing boils down to the lineup and how quickly the festival can get their headliners confirmed. … It feels like this year things came together for them quickly so why not announce early and start building the hype.”

This year’s Coachella, the 25th anniversary edition, has a distinct pop-bent with headliners Sabrina Carpenter on Friday, Justin Bieber on Saturday and Karol G on Sunday along with electronic artist Anyma, who played The Sphere last year and will present the world premier of his Æden project. Having such global pop superstars should also help sales.

“It’s exciting to see the 2026 Coachella lineup announced earlier than usual,” said Allyna Sanchez, Music Touring Agent at CAA, which reps Carpenter and Anyma. “It reflects just how much energy is already surrounding next year’s festival season. Both artists have played the festival before and are well deserving of their headliner status.”

Others point to what the political strategist James Carville once so eloquently said: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Pollstar’s Q3 mixed data indicates the top of the live market continues to do well with record-setting grosses, ticket sales and ticket prices, while the club and theater part of the industry continues to have struggles and is cause for some concern. This while the larger economy, too, is decidedly uneven.

“I don’t have any direct insight, but I think the timing of the announcement says more about their assessment of the U.S. economy going forward than anything to do with the Festival Market or the Live Industry,” said Stephen Chilton, owner and talent buyer for The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix and founder of Psyko Steve Presents. “My guess is they are trying to get out an onsale while things are as good as they are. We are all seeing some not great indicators – unemployment is up, inflation coming back slowly, consumer confidence dipping, tourism is down double digits, none dreadful yet but all not great signs. Come next year they might look like geniuses for getting the tickets already sold. I hope I am wrong, but I can see why they wouldn’t make a bet this big against that outlook.”

Fan reaction, per the comments on Coachella’s Instagram post announcing the 2026 acts varied ranging from criticism such as “Did you guys forget it’s your 25th anniversary…this is terrible. Half of this lineup has played the last 2 years” and “this gotta be the worst lineup in music festival history” to folks praising the lineup including a commenter saying “Can’t wait to cry with @giveon . Nicest lineup since I’ve been going” and another proclaiming “Never been to Coachella and never had the desire to go till now. This lineup is awesome in every genre.” 

Beyond its pop headliners, are a slew of acclaimed artists spread across genres that should entice a wide array of fandom. This includes The xx, Nine Inch Noize (NIN and Boys Noize), Disclosure, Turnstile, Ethel Cain, Dijon, Teddy Swims, KATSEYE, Sexyy Red, Subtronics, Devo, The Strokes, Clipse, Iggy Pop, FKA twigs, Wet Leg The Rapture, Addison Rae, Giveon, Labrinth, SOMBR, David Byrne, Interpol, Alex G, PinkPantheress, Swae Lee, Young Thug, Kaskade, BIGBANG, Laufey, Major Lazer and Lykke Li.

“Everyone is going to have their own opinions on the headliners,” Chilton said, “but to me if you go to the second half of this lineup it’s just classic Coachella, it’s just so many really hip, rad acts right now that everyone should be talking about if they aren’t already; Fleshwater, Los Retros, Lambrini Girls, 54 Ultra, Model/Actriz, Dabeull, French Police, Geese, February, The Chats and so many more. They couldn’t have done a better job.”

Additionally, the Coachella announcement included a line dedicated to “The Bunker Debut of Radiohead Kid A Mnesia.” While some are hoping this means a set from the acclaimed British alternative rock band – who recently announced a European tour – more likely it relates to an art installation celebrating the 25th anniversary of the group’s deluxe compilation album, Kid A Mnesia. Radiohead previously headlined Coachella in 2017, 2012 and 2004. 

“Electronic music has always over-indexed in the desert so it’s no surprise that a large portion of the lineup is dedicated to it,” WME’s Kurfirst said. “Three pop artists occupying the headline spots is a first for Coachella and reflects the preferences of the younger generation, while it’s refreshing to see rock and indie music also well-represented this year. Goldenvoice has always excelled at curating a diverse mix of genres, featuring the most cutting-edge emerging and established artists,

“I’m excited to see what Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have in store with their Nine Inch Noize set [which includes electronic artist Boys Noize],  what Labrinth will do to top his ’23 Coachella performance, Solomun and Little Simz’s triumph returns to the desert will be special, as will the highly anticipated debuts of Addison Rae, Fujii Kaze, Teddy Swims and NewDad to name a few.” 

The trend of Girl Power headliners continues with Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G leading two of the 2026 nights. This is welcomed considering how women are disproportionately underrepresented on festival bills overall – and how in the past 25 years Coachella has only had 11 solo female headliners (12 if you include the girl group BLACKPINK) out of 67 headliners, with Björk and Lady Gaga headlining twice.

This is only the second time Coachella has had two women headliners in a single year.

Since launching in 1999, Coachella featured Björk as its first female headliner in 2002 and 2007 – and then waited another 10 years after that until Lady Gaga headlined in 2017, followed by Beyoncé in 2018. Since then, female headliners have included Ariana Grande (2019), Billie Eilish (2022), BLACKPINK (2023), Lana Del Rey and Doja Cat (2024) and Lady Gaga (2025). 

Carpenter, repped by CAA’s Mario Tirado and Marlene Tsuchii, made her Coachella debut in 2024 and vowed during her performance that she’d be back to headline. Since then she’s continued adding to her festival prowess including taking over Tyler, The Creator’s headline spot at Outside Lands 2024 and she’s set to headline next month’s Austin City Limits on Oct. 4 and 11. Carpenter has arena dates booked Oct. 23 through Nov. 23 as she concludes her 2024-2025 “Short n’ Sweet Tour” including stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. She’s continuing to support her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, released in August.
 
After Bad Bunny made headlines in 2023 as the first Latin headliner, Karol G will have the honor of becoming the first Latina headliner in 2026. Karol G, who released her fifth studio album, Tropicoqueta, in June, featuring Latin pop, cumbia, reggaeton and vallenato, is repped by Jbeau Lewis, partner and agent at UTA.

“Karol headlining Coachella further cements the fact that global superstardom knows no borders or language barriers,” Lewis told Pollstar about Karol’s historic headline slot. ”It has been a dream of hers for years and she earned this opportunity with total commitment to her craft and non-stop hard work,”

Karol G ascended into stadiums in 2023 with her “Mañana Será Bonito Tour,” which was one of the most successful tours by a Latin artist. From August 2023 through September 2024, the tour grossed nearly $305 million and sold 2,279,749 tickets across 62 shows, according to Pollstar Boxoffice. Following record-breaking shows in Europe and Latin America in 2024, next up Karol G is headlining four nights at the Crazy Horse Paris, a legendary Parisian cabaret stage, Sept. 25-28. 

Pop fans are also pumped about Bieber making his grand return to the live stage. Bieber, who released his seventh studio album, the R&B/pop Swag, in July, hasn’t toured since his 2022 “Justice World Tour,” which was cut short after he was diagnosed with Type 2 Ramsay Hunt syndrome.

Booking Anyma for a special slot makes perfect sense, not only because he became the first electronic dance act to headline the Sphere in Las Vegas with his eight-show residency, “Afterlife Presents Anyma: The End of Genesys,” but because stars from the genre have really come through for the festival in recent years. In 2022 Swedish House Mafia took over Kanye West’s closing spot after he nixed his performance less than two weeks before the festival and in 2023, Skrillex, Four Tet, and Fred again.. helped wrap up the event (along with blink-182) after Frank Ocean canceled his second weekend headlining appearance because of an injury.

Anyma appeared at Coachella 2024, playing the Sahara Tent, as well as appearing b2b with Eric Prydz at the Quasar Stage.