‘I’ve been to Coachella – this is what the fierce planning is really like’

The Coachella music festival is a business opportunity for influencers, who spend weeks or even months planning their content strategy for the iconic stateside event

The sole issue was that merely days before Coachella commenced on Friday, she was without a ticket – at least, not at that moment. Mintesnot works as a content creator, and she was hoping for an invitation from a brand to accompany them at the annual festival in Indio, California, which is occasionally referred to as an “influencer Olympics.”

She shared updates across her social media channels about her ticket-free adventure, hoping to secure entry to Coachella in return for creating videos featuring the brand and her experience. “You never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “There’s so many opportunities out there.”

Coachella, packed with Instagram-worthy scenes, represents a mutually advantageous prospect for creators and companies together. The social media material emerging from the vast music festival appears spontaneous, but meticulous planning is frequently taking place backstage weeks, or occasionally even months, beforehand.

Obtaining brand collaborations, arranging sponsored content deals and developing a content schedule demand patience, tactical consideration and commercial expertise. Content creators frequently face ridicule online for their bold tactics, such as brazenly seeking complimentary tickets to events or free products.

Yet for individuals like Mintesnot, the approach pays off. She secured a festival invite from YouTube on Wednesday, merely two days before the fortnight-long extravaganza kicked off.

Now in its 25th year, Coachella has become a fixture of online culture. While both weekends have completely sold out, worldwide viewers can tune into YouTube’s livestream to catch sets from headline acts Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G, alongside numerous other performers. The streaming giant provides fans with simultaneous coverage across seven stages, plus creator content and additional Coachella material.

Creators document far more than just musical performances – they showcase the entire Coachella journey, from exclusive brand activations and complimentary goodies to the less glamorous queues for toilets and dining choices.

According to Matt McLernon, YouTube’s senior manager of artist partnerships overseeing the Coachella collaboration, the festival represents the platform’s biggest flagship livestream music occasion.

“Seeing how much the creator side has breathed this whole additional life into it – what’s on the stage, the creators, the fans, the kind of intersection of all of them, of what happens from there – it’s really truly magical,” he said. “There’s as many cameras pointed at the actual artists on stage as there are amongst the crowd.” Creators have diverse ways to generate income. For those specialising in fashion and beauty, integrated shopping features on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube provide opportunities to earn commission. This proves particularly lucrative for events like Coachella, where audiences actively search for styling and cosmetics ideas, or simply want to stay abreast of current trends.

Magdaline Janet, a beauty YouTuber, revealed YouTube Shopping has enabled her to pursue content creation as her full-time career. “It’s huge because Coachella essentially is a beauty and fashion show along with music,” she said.

For certain creators, investing in their own ticket and travelling independently to the festival proves worthwhile, even without brand sponsorship. The traction they generate from Coachella-themed content – whether posted beforehand, during the event or afterwards – frequently results in overall financial gain.

Sydney Morgan, a content creator recognised for her special effects makeup work, purchased her own pass. She’s lodging in a rental property alongside fellow content creator friends – the Airbnb was deliberately chosen for its visual appeal in footage, and she organised a schedule to suit the group’s individual filming requirements, she explained. “Me and my friends like to joke that Coachella’s our favorite holiday,” Morgan said. The group was travelling to Indio on Wednesday to dedicate an entire day to producing content ahead of the musical performances. “We talk about it all year and we romanticise the crap out of it, and I know that our audience does the same thing, especially those that can’t be there in person.”

Morgan had carefully planned an extensive long-form video centred on her festival outfits alongside multiple short-form clips. Similar to Morgan, numerous creators arrive with detailed plans for footage they intend to capture throughout the festival, though entertainment news presenter and content creator Louis Levanti emphasised that successfully navigating the event requires a “willingness to adapt.” Levanti creates content full-time but previously worked in digital video production and media, skills he now applies to his content strategy.

“It’s important to tell the story from your lens as quickly but as accurately and efficiently as possible,” he said. “I do really think of it as a newsroom. I do look at every story as like, ‘How do I build this into more than just a headline?'” Levanti is also heading to Coachella this year with YouTube, though he noted there’s merit in utilising this year’s event to forge connections with other brands for upcoming festivals and prospects. Certain brand partnerships, such as Levanti’s previous Coachella tie-ups with Coca-Cola and Absolut Vodka, can impose limitations on what content creators may and may not share and which other brands they can collaborate with.

“It’s a great opportunity where there’s no constraints or stress on me to make content, which makes it easier for me to do that while also appealing to more brands,” he said.

While the brands at the festival, the fashion movements and performer line-ups shift each year, the unwavering element at Coachella remains an endless hunger online for any festival-related material. And these creators are keen to allow their preparatory efforts to deliver results in satisfying that appetite. “We want to feed the audience, keep ’em fed, give them good content and have fun while doing it,” Morgan said.