Is Coachella Worth Going Into Debt For?

...especially when all of your faves are paid to be there? I dug into this question for GQ.

The first weekend of Coachella has come and gone, and aside from Lady Gaga’s masterful Friday night headlining performance and Charli xcx’s Brat Summer reprise on Saturday, I am willing to bet that most of the social media you saw coming out of the festival wasn’t about the music — or even about the style.

As is now customary, much of what’s posted from the desert is sponsored. Dozens of brands max out their marketing budgets to pop up around Palm Springs and fly influencers in from all over the world to stay in their tricked-out, heavily branded estates in exchange for content. Even your favorite celebrities aren’t at Coachella just for fun anymore (somewhere Vanessa Hudgens is crying); it’s more likely they’re working, either making paid appearances at brand activations or promoting their own. Think Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber, who threw a collaborative party for their respective brands, 818 Tequila and Rhode, before being photographed at the festival.

Two brand founders maximizing their joint Coachella slay.

On the flip side, a reported 60 percent of Coachella attendees put their tickets on a payment plan this year. The annual event is increasingly becoming a real haves and have nots situation, where only the very wealthy (and very connected) can have a comfortable experience. Buy now, pay later is a normal part of life in 2025, but is a music festival — especially one with less than stellar on-site conditions, exorbitant food and beverage prices, and organizational issues for normal attendees — worth going into debt for?

I dug into this question for my first story over at GQ. You can read it in full here before the content machine kicks back into gear for weekend two.