Coachella: A Weekend to Remember
The desert skies lit up once again for Coachella 2025, and this past weekend’s performances have already been etched into music festival history. With a mix of genre-defining legends and surprise cross-generational moments, the highlight reel practically writes itself. From Lady Gaga’s jaw-dropping theatrics to Green Day’s punk-fueled debut and Brian May’s iconic guitar solo in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the festival was a masterclass in showmanship.
Returning to Coachella after nearly a decade, Lady Gaga unleashed a visual and sonic spectacle that critics are calling one of the greatest Coachella performances of all time. Her two-hour headlining set was more than a concert—it was a pop opera.
She opened in a dramatic, Victorian-inspired red dress that unfolded into a massive stage prop. From there, Gaga took the crowd through a whirlwind of career-spanning hits like “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face,” the latter staged as a life-sized chess match complete with dancers acting out a battle that ended with the crowd chanting “Off with her head!”
But it wasn’t all nostalgia—she also performed new tracks from her latest album, “Mayhem,” including “Abracadabra,” “Killah,” and “Garden of Eden.” The performance earned a rare 5/5 score from The Guardian and was praised by Billboard for its “meticulous vision” and its commentary on fame and identity.
“I saw the live stream on Coachella’s YouTube channel. I loved Lady Gaga’s set. I feel like it was such an iconic set, like that’s what Coachella should be. Her performance of Poker Face was my favorite. Like the idea of her facing her dark side versus her light was genius,” said sophomore Aliyah Lopez.
After decades of defining punk rock, Green Day finally made their Coachella debut—and it was worth the wait. The trio delivered a high-octane set packed with fan favorites, from “Basket Case” to “American Idiot,” stirring up a mosh-pit energy that felt like vintage Warped Tour chaos dropped into the Coachella Valley.
Earlier in the day, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong even made a surprise appearance with the Go-Go’s, jumping on stage for a spontaneous rendition of their 1984 hit “Head Over Heels.” The crowd erupted as he shouted, “Holy —, I’m playing with the Go-Go’s,” before tearing into the song like it was his own.
“I’ve been a Green Day fan since forever, and when I saw they were headlining one of the festivals, I got so excited. The fact that they were able to use their performance to spread political awareness about what’s going on in Palestine, too, was pretty sick to me, too. I think like overall, it was an amazing set and one to really remember,” said sophomore Fabio Fernandez.
Just when the weekend couldn’t get more surreal, Queen’s Brian May made a surprise appearance during Benson Boone’s set for a stirring version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Boone began the song solo on a grand piano, but as the operatic build-up reached its peak, May rose from beneath the stage and tore through the legendary guitar solo with all the fire of his younger days.
“Seeing Brian May play his iconic guitar solo was epic in every way. Like, I would literally pay to see that. I just feel like the crowd was so dead for a moment that should be so legendary. If I’m being honest, they didn’t deserve it,” added Aliyah.
The two closed the set with Boone’s hit “Beautiful Things,” which May joined, adding a layer of classic rock gravitas to the pop ballad. While the pairing caught some in the crowd off guard, the performance quickly became a viral moment, and May himself later called it “hard to beat in the years to come.”
Coachella 2025 was everything a music festival should be—bold, unexpected, and packed with moments that fans will be talking about for years. Whether you were there for the avant-garde theatrics of Gaga, the punk catharsis of Green Day, or the soul-shaking solo from a rock legend, this weekend proved that Coachella still knows how to make magic in the desert.
