The 2018 edition of Coachella kicked off on Friday (4/13) in Indio, CA. Check out pictures in the gallery above (more still to come).
While entrance to the red gate was delayed two hours (due to lawn work, according to The Desert Sun), once inside the grounds attendees had some new additions to festival to check out, including Indio Central Market, a tent with over 15 restaurants (vegan options included); a bigger Sahara tent; and new art installations, including Spectra, a rainbow colored tower seven stories tall, the star-shaped Supernova, and Etherea, which The Desert Sun describes as “three Neoclassical- and Baroque-inspired buildings are made only of wire mesh.”
After a perfect chill festival set by The War on Drugs, and as promised, St. Vincent treated Coachella to a new live set that she correctly called a “blistering, disturbing rock show” in an interview before the show. Unlike the previous leg of her “Fear the Future” tour, which was a theatrical one woman show, St. Vincent’s was joined by three band members, two of them in masks. The four of them were in sort of a Kraftwerk formation with great lights and giant projections. She also debuted a new version of MASSEDUCTION track “Slow Disco.” “I just went a little South Beach with it,” she said in a pre-set interview, “like gay disco.” It was one of the many tracks she played off the album, one of our favorites of 2017.
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A little earlier in the evening, Vince Staples brought out a very exciting guest – Kendrick Lamar came out to rap his verse on “Yeah Right,” closing out Vince’s set. Kendrick returned to join SZA whose set was amazing without any guests but was made legendary. Kendrick and SZA closed our her set by playing “Dove in the Wind” from her album (the pussy song, complete with cat visuals), AND “All the Stars,” their even bigger hit from the Black Panther soundtrack. She also brought out Isaiah Rashad earlier to help with their song “Pretty Little Birds.” She sounded great from start to finish, playing many tracks off another of our favorite albums of 2017.
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Kendrick wasn’t the only special guest on Friday, of course. Superduperkyle brought out Chance the Rapper, Carly Rae Jepsen came out with Bleachers, Snoop Dogg joined Jamiroquai, and Daniel Ceasar brought out H.E.R. for his song “Best Part,” which she sings on. H.E.R. also performed “Focus” before Daniel finished his set. Daniel played after Kali Uchis who brought out Tyler, The Creator for “After the Storm.” Kali and Daniel did not play their song “Get You” together though, even though Daniel closed his set with it. Maybe they’re saving that for weekend two.
One of the day’s most anticipated guests took the stage early in the afternoon – Mason Ramsey, the Walmart Yodeling Kid! He said he’d be “bringing the country to Cachella” in an Instagram post, and true to his word, he came out for Whethan‘s set.
after the yodel kid followed me i dmed him to try and get him to come out as whethans guest at coachella. and it happened. ur welcome everyone. i love u mason and i love the internet pic.twitter.com/VSjLjS9mU4
— dubstep4dads (@dubstep4dads) April 13, 2018
Kelela, Moses Sumney, The Weeknd, Perfume Genius, Slow Magic, Jamiroquai, Soulwax, Fazerdaze, Helado Negro, and more also played Friday.
Catch up on all of our Coachella weekend one coverage so far: More video from St. Vincent and Perfume Genius’s sets, pictures from Saturday, video from Beyonce’s epic headlining set, and video from Eminem’s Sunday headlining set.
If you’re in Indio for Coachella, here are the set times (and set time conflicts). If you aren’t in Indio, you can still stream lots of sets live – check out the streaming schedule. You can also listen to Coachella Radio on Sirius XM.
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photos by Charles Reagan Hackleman, Christopher Miller, Elli Papayanopoulos, Greg Noire, Jesse Fulton, Julian Bajsel, Michael Drummond, Miranda McDonald, Neil Husvar, Quinn Tucker, Roger Ho, Ryan Parrilla, Timothy Hans and Tod Seelie, courtesy of Coachella
