The arrival of April every year gives avid music enjoyers and concert-goers the green light to spend over a few thousand dollars and book a flight to Indio, California, where America’s most iconic musical festival takes place annually: Coachella.The two-weekend festival contains an alluring mix of A-list pop to upcoming alternative artists and everything in between and far out. Of course, every year, the festival is met with both enthusiasm and disappointment. 

It’s too expensive and pretentious this, and why is this band headlining over this band that—the usual debates are given rerun. Some people observe, however, that #Coachella2025 earned a bit of a different reaction, or better yet, a lack of one. Is this really true, and if so, what might be the reasoning behind this?

Did Coachella Go Under Our Radar?

Generally, Coachella “making no noise” would be an exaggeration and a clear undermining of how immensely popular the music festival is. Statistically, however, this year’s attendance reports have yet to come out, so numerical proof of the festival’s popularity surge, tank, or plateau remains undeclared. It is very likely that when the reports come out, we will see an improvement from last year: according to (The Guardian), Coachella 2024 saw record-low ticket sales. The bar is pretty low to be defined as a relative success in terms of attendance.

But, some online critics share that this year’s Coachella, well, just did not reach their algorithms. To some, the festival simply did not receive enough attention or promotion for them to care. X user @arianatorswildt shared a viral post on X that gained over 1.3 million views and 57k likes on April 11th, the first day of Coachella Weekend 1, that sparked a conversation about it. The post read:

“coachella TODAY and it’s making zero noise” (X.com) 

The replies had a mix of both those who agreed that they forgot Coachella was even set to happen that day, and annoyed commenters who disagreed with the idea that there was not much energy around the festival this year. While the post itself may have been made with unserious intent or with the motivation to start online fan wars, a lot of the replies seemed to hold truth.

“this is the only post i’ve seen about coachella today”

“are you patrick star? cuz u surely do live under a rock”

“There’s so much destruction happening in the world why should we care about it? It happens every year.”

I believe both perspectives are correct in their own ways. Some people may have been directly affected by Coachella’s promotional efforts or may hear word of the festival more often in their own circle of friends. To them, the festival is the talk of the town. They didn’t have to do much digging to know about it; it just naturally seems popular. Others, perhaps, haven’t been on the road to see Coachella artists’ billboards, or may have established an algorithm so far from news and pop culture that it simply hadn’t reached their feeds. Many saw the lineup for the festival and lost interest after not seeing their favorite artists’ names. This all makes sense, too.

There are only so many reasons as to why some online users feel so strongly about the stagnant air around Coachella, but I see the plausibility of one cause outshining most:

Coachella is Not The American Focus in 2025.

No, it’s not the fact that Green Day is headlining over Charli XCX, or that Ariana Grande didn’t come back for an “ARICHELLA.” It has nothing to do with the lineup or the promotions– at least, nothing more than usual. What makes Coachella 2025 different from any of the other years is the fact that the world is in pain and people are paying more attention to that instead.

I think that Coachella, in all of its greatness, is not the priority of Americans this year. America, in simple terms, is in social and political shambles. The Trump-Vance versus Biden-Harris election had the nation in increasing tension since early last year, which exploded into more social outrage since President Trump’s win. Many members of the LGBTQIA+ community fear for their rights in light of his inauguration. (It is also worth mentioning that Coachella’s lineup is released in early January, which is the same month that Trump was inaugurated; a month of stress for many. There was not too much focus on the lineup’s reveal as a result.) Friends and families of immigrants, both legal and illegal, fear to be wrongfully accused or worse, deported. Controversies and protests still exist over the safety of Palestinians. The stock market recently saw an insane tank, and President Trump’s tariffs are widely unpopular. Americans fear an absolute economic crash, if we aren’t already plunging headfirst into one.

The list goes on. There are so much more topics worth talking about than an annual music festival that only the higher middle class and above can afford, and that’s the reality of the situation. I think Coachella this year didn’t earn any more hatred, mockery, or disappointment because of who was attending or how it was promoted. It received, in my opinion, a lower amount of hate and overall attention, because of the context it is placed within. The world’s 2025 isn’t going to be open arms to an over-expensive, unsanitary music marathon. The world’s 2025 is open arms to social and political change, and we want to bring more attention to the danger that we are facing.

Coachella, in fact, made as much noise as it usually does each year. The advertisements worked as it typically does, and it was talked about online, as expected. What people are noticing is a large shift of focus from meticulously engineered social presentations to real-world problems. In other words, Coachella made as much noise as it usually can– 2025 just deafened a lot of people to it.