Once the hottest ticket in town, how Coachella is being shunned by music lovers after

It was once the hottest ticket in the summer festival calendar, but Coachella is now being shunned by music lovers after becoming overrun with Gen Z influencers who don’t even recognise the acts performing on stage. 

This year’s California-based festival – boasting a lineup including Lana del Ray and Blur – saw legions of influencers flown out by brands to pose in the desert and promote their swimwear, hair, and clothing ranges. 

But many ticketholders don’t even bother attending the event – now dubbed the ‘Influencer Olympics‘ – despite a storied history first inspired by a 1993 gig grunge band Pearl Jam performed at the Empire Polo Club venue in Indio, California.

At the weekend, Blur frontman Damon Albarn became increasingly frustrated with the ‘silent’ Coachella crowd during his band’s set, telling them: ‘You’ll never see us again so you might as well f****** sing it’. 

He has been given sympathy by a member of Paul Weller’s touring band who told of similar indifference from crowds at Coachella – and branded it ‘not a music festival’.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE 

Bass guitar player Andy Lewis posted on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Seeing the Blur thing at Coachella reminds me of when I played there with my old job.

‘Nobody really knew, or cared, who we were. The crowd were just having a great time, and making sure they were seen to be having a great time.

‘I got the impression it’s not a music festival, rather it’s a conspicuous consumption festival. A “we’re here and you ain’t” festival.

‘Don’t get me wrong, nobody there was unpleasant, but I didn’t get the impression anyone cared about the music more than they cared about *being there*.’

Iconic Britpop band Blur played a 13-song set at the California-based music festival, including 90s classics like Girls & Boys, Popscene and Song 2.

But the audience was less than enthusiastic, with their apathy becoming apparent to the band onstage. 

Footage taken during the band’s set shows Damon becoming frustrated with the crowd as he asks them to sing back to him but is hit with near silence. 

The singer becomes increasingly annoyed as he shouts ‘you can do it better than that’, before waving his hands in the air and vowing never to return, adding: ‘You’ll never see us again so you might as well f****** sing it’. 

The crowd appeared to be comprised mostly of young Gen Z festivalgoers, while Blur hit its musical peak in the 90s. 

But while well known faces such as Love Island’s Maura Higgins and Millie Court posed up for pictures for this year’s fest, Coachella has faced its slowest sales year in a decade, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

‘Influencer fatigue’ is setting in for music lovers who would typically attend Coachella, with 75 per cent of respondents of a recent US survey saying influencers are overshadowing Coachella’s musical purpose. 

Meanwhile, 68 per cent of respondents said they are unhappy with the increasing presence of brands and social media influencers at the three-day event. 

Famous influencers who posed up for Coachella also included YouTuber Saffron Barker, who was in partnership with White Fox boutique. 

Last year, American singer Loren Gray claimed ‘a lot’ of influencers pretend to attend Coachella through posed photos but do not actually go to the festival. 

She said: ‘Okay, I haven’t personally seen anyone talk about this but I think it’s hilarious, and I have to share it because it’s Coachella. 

‘Coachella’s like the Influencer Olympics right, it’s the place to be. But most influencers, or a lot of influencers, don’t even go to Coachella, and I think that this is such a wild fact.’ 

She added: ‘They’ll go out to the desert, get like an Airbnb, stay with someone, get their outfits, get their hair, get their makeup […] and they don’t go to the festival.’ 

Coachella was cancelled for a few years during the Covid pandemic, having been established in 1999 and peaking in 2015, according to Aol. 

It entered its ‘flop era’ in 2022, after TikTok became the dominant social media platform to post about it, shifting the vibe and the type of content festivalgoers were exposed to. 

The Pearl Jam gig at the Empire Polo Club in November 25 was attended by about 25,000 people, after the band refused to play a gig in nearby Los Angeles during a dispute with Ticketmaster over added service fees.

Concert promotion company Goldenvoice was encouraged by the turnout but it took six years for the firm’s boss Paul Tollett to put together a new festival at the same place – helped by handing out pamphlets at the 1997 Glastonbury Festival.

Acts who appeared at the first Coachella in 1999 included US artists Beck and Rage Against The Machine as well as Brits such as Morrissey, Underworld and the Chemical Brothers.

But fans have now branded the latest festival goers ’embarrassing’ after their indifferent reaction during Blur’s set, which saw the band’s frontman become frustrated over the quiet crowd. 

Clips of the toe-curling moment were soon circulated on social media, with many fans slamming the Coachella crowd as having the ‘worst vibes’ and declaring they ‘did not deserve to be graced by the presence of Blur’.

They wrote: ‘This coachella people do NOT deserve this blur setlist you’re joking; lord please take away all my suffering and give it to the blur crowd at coachella; Why does everyone at Coachella lowkey want Blur dead; the crowd for blur at coachella was so embarassing damon im so sorry i wasn’t there’.

‘America, you don’t deserve Damon Albarn, you do not deserve Blur. I will burn you to the ground.; i should be at coachella watching blur and no doubt perform back to back and not these children… they don’t get it; Coachella you do not deserve to be graced by the presence of blur.’

‘I actually feel bad for blur at Coachella, they deserve better; Coachella looks like the f***ing worst. Poor Blur.; honestly that crowd did NOT deserve blur except for like the few people who actually made noise; blame rich californians for the dead blur crowd not just americans sigh’.

‘most of these ppl at coachella don’t even know how lucky they are to see blur THAT SHOULD BE MEE; Thanks to every coachella goer who went to blur and probably ruined the chances of any more america shows for our american blur lovers’.

‘the SILENCE when blur came out pls; coachella does not deserve blur I should be there; WHAT THE F*** IS HAPPENING im convinced coachella has the worst vibes and people possible. it’s f***ing Blur, show some respect !!!!’

Blur are far from the first music act to clash with a crowd over gig-goers’ apparent indifference or even contempt.

Liam Gallagher, from their old Britpop rivals Oasis, faced chants of ‘F*** you, Liam’ before leaving the stage just 19 minutes into his Lollapalooza performance in Chicago in August 2017.

And Brighton-based rock duo Royal Blood came under fire after a bizarre on-stage meltdown at BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend in Dundee last May, during which they openly swore and mocked ‘pathetic fans’.

After being sandwiched between mainstream pop acts Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi, frontman Mike Kerr began mocking the audience and suggested they didn’t know who the band were.

He told the audience: ‘Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves considering no one knows who we actually are.

‘We’re called Royal Blood and this is rock music. Who likes rock music? Nine people – brilliant.’

Introducing his bandmate, he added: ‘This is Ben Thatcher and he plays drums – everybody say hi to Ben please. We’re having to clap ourselves because that was so pathetic. Well done, Ben.’

Pointing to a cameraman on stage, he then snapped: ‘Will you clap for us? Will you clap? No, you’re busy. Oh, yes, even he’s clapping. What does that say about you?’

As the set came to a close, Kerr then slammed his guitar on stage and walked off with his middle fingers in the air to the audience.

One of rock music’s most famous heckles came from an audience member at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in May 1966, unimpressed by folk singer Bob Dylan switching from acoustic to electric guitar.

Dylan responded to the taunt of ‘Judas!’ with ‘I don’t believe you, you’re a liar’ – before telling his band, ‘Play it f***ing loud’ as they launched into Like A Rolling Stone. 

Others pointed out that those attending Coachella were unlikely to be familiar with Blur, insisting they would only know recent music and not the impact of Britpop.

They tweeted: ‘Coachella was never going to be the right crowd for Blur. Still gutted for them tho!!; i wish britpop had more exposure in america. watching this gives me second hand embarrassment’.

‘I can’t help but think the crowd at Coachella has no idea who Blur is.; ‘You know who we should book for the 7:30 Saturday slot here at Coachella? Blur. Whose entire discography combined has sold slightly less in the United States than Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water did in its first 7 days on sale.’ 

‘Do these kids at #Coachella2024 even know who Blur are?; That 19 year old Americans don’t know who Blur are is an effing disgrace. Sing for uncle Damon. SING. Without Blur, you have no Doja Cat, no Tyler the Creator, no Ice Spice. Fact.’

Many other fans took to social media to declare that the band should return to Europe instead, and declared they would give Blur the crowd reaction they deserved. 

They penned: ‘Blur, come over to Glasto instead. We’re waiting for you!! i think we need more uk blur shows just to show coachella what a proper crowd looks like’.

‘Shoulda done a British festival. Coachella looks dead.; so hyperfixated on blur it’s sickening i should have been there i would have given them the best crowd ever. that crowd didn’t deserve that set list’.

‘damon, there are mentally ill teenagers and chronically online youth livetweeting the entire blur set, waking up at 5am for it and obsessively taking screenshots and screenrecordings. the crowd does not define blur. come back to the other side of the globe come back comeback’.

Damon performed at Coachella last year with his other band, Gorillaz, while Blur last played at the festival in 2013.

Ahead of their show, Damon and bassist Alex James spoke to KROQ about returning to the desert.

They revealed they had decided to do the festival after receiving a phone call at night telling them they had five minutes to decide whether to perform.

Alex said: ‘This was a wonderful opportunity, it’s the biggest festival on the planet. If I wasn’t here I’d have FOMO to be honest.’

When asked how they felt the audience would react, Damon admitted: ‘I have no idea how it will go. It’s a weird one, Coachella when it comes to audience. 

‘It’s hard to know sometimes, because they’re sort of on their own planet a bit, the audience.’