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Welcome to live coverage of Day 1 of the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Friday’s headliner is the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, the first Spanish-language artist to top the festival’s bill, and, in another first, one of three nonwhite headliners this year: K-pop girl group Blackpink will take the main stage on Saturday night, and international man of mystery Frank Ocean will close out the festival Sunday with his first concert since 2019, and his first area show since 2017.
The 2023 edition of the wildly popular (and lucrative) festival follows a chaotic few years, for Coachella and more broadly for live music. In 2022, both Travis Scott and Kanye West pulled out of planned headline performances, while the 2020 and 2021 editions were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friday will feature highly anticipated sets from Gorillaz, Metro Boomin, Burna Boy, the Chemical Brothers, a reunited Blink-182, Wet Leg, Becky G, Yves Tumor, Kaytranada, Blondie, Doechii and many more, plus the usual parade of surprise guest stars (who gets custody of the Weeknd?), and The Times’ Mikael Wood, August Brown, Suzy Exposito and Kenan Draughorne will be roaming the grounds of Indio’s Empire Polo Club, reporting on all the action as it happens.
