Influencer fatigue finds its next victim: Coachella 2024

Coachella 2024 is here, and social media will soon be consumed by images of beautiful people in trendy clothing, posing with backdrops of art installations and luxurious, brand-sponsored tents in the desert. Although the influx of posts about the music festival may persist, Coachella’s popularity among the masses seems to be dwindling.

It took a month for tickets to the first weekend of the festival to sell out, and tickets to the second weekend are still available, the festival’s website shows. According to the Los Angeles Times, resale tickets are available well below face value, and Coachella is facing its slowest sales year in a decade. It’s a far cry from the 2015 festival, which sold out in 40 minutes flat.

Influencer fatigue is setting in for the people who would typically attend. According to a survey of 3,000 U.S. residents, 75% of respondents say influencers are overshadowing Coachella's primary purpose and 68% say they dislike the increasing presence of brands and social media influencers at the three-day event that spans two weekends.

The musical acts seem to have taken a back seat to the “influencer Olympics” that have dominated the online conversation about the Indio, Calif., festival over the past few years. Popular artists like Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator, Doja Cat, No Doubt and Vampire Weekend are headlining, but chances are they won’t generate as much conversation as the people in their audiences.

In 2023, TikToker Loren Gray said in a video that the festival is “the place to be,” but many influencers fake their Coachella attendance by dressing up and driving into the desert, and never actually enter the festival gates. Beauty creator Naomi Mahdesian said in a 2022 TikTok that Coachella was beginning to feel like an “influencer work event.”

The festival was established in 1999 and peaked around 2015. It was canceled due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021. When it returned in 2022, TikTok was the dominant social media platform for posting about it. Thanks to the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm, users didn’t have to follow a single Coachella influencer to have their feeds filled with those posts. The vibe shifted.

That year, BuzzFeed News declared Coachella to be in its “flop era,” and the Ringer wrote that it was the “tragicomic encapsulation of modern folly.” The quest for internet clout became more important than the pilgrimage to see artists perform live. Even as influencers dominate the imagery surrounding Coachella, they often have a different experience at the festival from “commoners,” posting ads and indulging in expensive perks in exchange for promoting brands.

Matt Ferrel, the head of growth at ticketing company TickPick, told Yahoo Entertainment that the reason why interest in the festival is dwindling may be because it’s so expensive for non-influencers. Ticket prices are rising with inflation — especially those for VIPs, which offer the most glamorous experience — but that’s far from the only expense involved.

“If you’re doing it with friends, renting a house, driving out to the California desert … it’s expensive compared to big festivals like Bonnaroo, where people go camping, or Lollapalooza, which is near the city,” explained Ferrel, who also used to do marketing for entertainment event company AEG, which runs Coachella. “There is a content consumption gap between those who can afford to go and those who are actually watching [on social media].”

He noted that at this point, Coachella is so popular and flooded with influencers that it might feel a little “basic,” or ordinary. People planning on spending a ton of money on a festival might opt for something “crazier” to “one-up” Coachella, like the over-the-top, fantastical EDM festival Tomorrowland, to “really show off.”

Factors beyond influencers might be impacting ticket sales

The festival’s headliners this year aren’t as popular as they have been in years past. Ferrel noted that Lana Del Rey is a popular artist, but doesn’t have a history of selling out arenas. Tyler, the Creator can sell seats, but hasn’t released an album since 2021.

Ferrel said that it's possible many big-name artists are wrapped up in their own projects or are involved with their own tours. These would include Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, who are gearing up for new concert dates and Olivia Rodrigo, who is currently on the road.

It’s also easier now than ever for people to find niche artists that suit their specific tastes, thanks to algorithm-driven playlists like Spotify’s Discover Weekly, Ferrel said. That makes it difficult to book artists for a multigenre festival. He predicted that smaller, genre-specific music festivals will thrive in the future.

“I think [Coachella] maybe flew too close to the sun and this is their Icarus moment,” he said. “We built a full city in the desert and now it’s a little too big. Now we’re seeing this right-sizing.”

There’s also the ever-present problem of the passage of time. The people who instantly sold out Coachella in 2015 aren’t in their 20s anymore or have the same passion for today’s popular artists — and Ferrel is among them.

“I’m 36. I don’t want to stand around in a field anymore unless I can be comfortable,” he said.