Coachella 2022: These are the differences between Weekend 1 and Weekend 2

The 2022 editions of the twin Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festivals are nearly behind us and after a two-year absence due to the pandemic the festival came back with a lineup that included headliners Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and the Weekend with Swedish House Mafia.

The festival, which happened April 15-17 and April 22-24 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio and included performances by Megan Thee Stallion, Disclosure, Danny Elfman, Louis the Child, Doja Cat, Giveon, Anitta and others.

While the lineup remains the same both weekends, not everything stays the same during the twin weekends.

These are a few of the differences between weekend one and two at Coachella.

Different surprises and lineup changes

The biggest surprise from Weekend 1 was the appearance of Arcade Fire, who played a stellar Mojave Tent set the festival’s opening evening. However, they didn’t return for weekend 2.

On Weekend 1, Harry Styles performed with one of his idols on the first night of Coachella as he brought country star Shania Twain to duet on a pair of her songs and the next day Billie Eilish brought out Khalid as well as Blur and Gorillaz singer Damon Albarn.

During the second weekend of the festival the headliners had more surprises planned for the crowd with Styles inviting Lizzo on stage to perform Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I Will Survive” followed by “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful” from Styles’ former band One Direction. Eilish, meanwhile, invited Paramore singer Hayley Williams on stage Saturday night and the pair teamed up for Paramore’s  “Misery Business” and the set-closing song “Happier Than Ever.”

There were other surprises on other stages at Weekend 2 as well. Jacoby Shaddix, lead singer of Papa Roach and the group 3OH!3 were surprise guests at Emo Nite’s Saturday April 23 performance at the Sahara Tent while 30 minutes into his April 22 set Baby Keem introduced Compton’s Kendrick Lamar as a surprise guest and the rappers performed the last two songs of the set together.

A noticeably pregnant Bishop Briggs performed on the Outdoor Theatre on Friday, April 15. But she was a no-show on Weekend 2 because she had to bow out due to testing positive COVID-19.

While that was the most drastic lineup change it wasn’t the only one. Run the Jewels performed on the main stage Sunday on the first weekend but their set was moved to Mojave on Friday. Surf Curse, who also performed on the main stage Sunday last weekend moved to Gobi Tent on Saturday for the second weekend.

Less influencers, more fans

Weekend 1 was a selfie factory for all the influencers and industry folks who showed up. As is usually the case, the first Coachella weekend is when most of the influencer crowd attends, taking and posting endless selfies at all the usual spots like Spectra, the Ferris wheel, and of course all up in the VIP areas.

Sure, selfies happen all over the place on Weekend 2 as well, but the overall crowd seems to be more about the music, even putting their phones down at times and actually singing along. And the field felt fuller for the headliners and more of the tents felt packed.

More families

There seemed to be just a few young families with kids roaming around the field during the first Coachella weekend. But the following weekend looked like a different story with at least a dozen or so kids with families spotted roaming around and checking out the music stages. And they came prepared with strollers geared up with umbrellas, large protective headphones, tons of water and kids covered in sunscreen from head to toe.

The grass was greener

They say the grass is always greener on the other side. That may be true but when it comes to Coachella it’s definitely not greener the other weekend. The grass all over the field was lush and green on the first weekend of the festival but after getting stepped on by about 125,000 or so people per day, it tends to get a little brown, well, actually really brown. So yeah, finding a nice green spot to sit on during Weekend 2 was not easy.

On the bright side, Weekend 2 was slightly cooler than Weekend 1 to start, which is an anomaly.

Smoother flow

Weekend 1 can sometimes be about working out the logistical kinks and a few things that were rock on the first weekend ran a lot smoother Weekend 2.

Trying to get out of the parking lot on the first weekend and more specifically Friday night of Weekend 1 was pretty much like a late night treasure hunt where the prize was seeing that elusive open gate that would get you to the streets. In one of the lots, for example there were no signs pointing to the exits and no guards directing traffic.

And if you did find a guard to ask, chances were that they had no idea where the exit gates were.

Things ran much smoother in the parking lot with guards this time pointing the way out with their trusty flashlights.

The lines for water on Weekend 1 were pretty long as well, and some of the refill stations weren’t working initially.

But by the second weekend people seemed to have done more research and knew where the water stations were located, so they all didn’t just pack into a few of the more visible spots.