Coachella to be headlined entirely by nonwhite artists for first time in festival’s history

Southern California’s Coachella music festival announced its 2023 lineup on Tuesday, and it will feature entirely nonwhite headliners for the first time in the festival’s history. 

The largest music festival in North America confirmed that Puerto Rican hit rapper Bad Bunny, R&B superstar Frank Ocean, and K-pop girl group BLACKPINK will headline the festival, which is scheduled to take place over two weekends in April. 

This year’s lineup will mark the 22nd iteration of the festival, which started in 1999. The festival was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, and experienced unexpected shakeups in 2022, after then-headliner Kanye West pulled out of the lineup.

BLACKPINK and Bad Bunny previously headlined the festival in 2019, while Ocean, who has not released an album since 2016’s “Blonde,” has not performed at Coachella since 2012. Ocean was originally slated to headline Coachella in 2020 before it was canceled.

Additionally, BLACKPINK are the first K-pop group to headline Coachella, and Bad Bunny is the first Latin American artist, and first Spanish-language musician to headline, according to Pitchfork.

Coachella 2023 Headliners: From left to right, Frank Ocean, BLACKPINK and Bad Bunny.  Getty Images

The festival will take place in Coachella Valley in Indio, California, over the course of two weekends: April 14-16 and April 21-23.   

Coachella’s Twitter announcement noted that “very limited Weekend 1 passes remain” for the festival, and “for your best chance at passes, look to Weekend 2.” The presale begins on Friday, Jan. 13, at 11 a.m. Pacific time. 

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C Mandler

C Mandler is a social media producer and trending content writer in New York, focusing on LGBTQ+ issues.

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