Coachella 2023 opened this past weekend, and singer-songwriter and rapper Frank Ocean stole the headlines. Nicki Berelson has the story.
USC students went out in droves to Coachella weekend one, which saw Frank Ocean perform live for the first time in six years, albeit for much shorter than fans were hoping for.
LICHTMAN: People were walking out and, like, yelling that they wanted refunds. It was really disappointing.
Elise Lichtman and USC-student Griffin Ainsworth were about to leave when Ocean finally appeared, about an hour later than scheduled.
The two-time Grammy winner left before scheduled too, obstructed by performers who encircled him for much of his time onstage, but Ainsworth enjoyed his set regardless.
AINSWORTH: “He came on like as soon as we were about to go to other sets so I stayed, and, like I’m happy I did, but... Yeah I mean it’s Frank Ocean it’s hard to be upset.”
Amidst Ocean’s controversy as Sunday’s headliner, Coachella made history on each of the two previous days. Bad Bunny became the first Latino artist to headline the historic festival on Friday before BLACKPINK headlined Saturday as the first K-pop group ever to do so.
That’s “How you like that” by BLACKPINK. So how you like paying some the big bucks to go to Coachella?
General admission tickets start at around $550, which doesn’t even take into account the unavoidable cost for parking and lodging. One USC student who didn’t go to this past weekend says she’s glad she saved the money.
ADATIA: “I wasn’t fond of the lineup, like I didn’t want to spend 600-plus dollars on a lineup that I didn’t care as much about.”
Fans await Ocean’s second performance this coming weekend, hoping to see and hear more from the R&B star this time around.
Festival-goers for weekend two should also keep a look out for a Trojan in the Desert. This is Thornton student Garrett Murphy. He’s a sophomore studying Music Industry. Murphy will perform at the DoLaB stage this weekend.
But don’t look for Garrett Murphy under his real name. He goes by the stage-name, it’s murph.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Nicki Berelson.