Coachella 2022: Insight into the Hottest Trends

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If you didn’t already know, the two weekend Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival marked its return to Indio, California this past weekend. With some of the hottest trends in art, fashion and food, most exclusive parties and brand activation events, Coachella is known to be the spot for celebrities and influencers.  

Many brands work with celebrities and influencers to promote their products throughout the weekend. They do this through brand endorsements, brand activation events, and through many other marketing/branding tactics. There were a lot of unique ideas this year taking into account the latest trends.

REVOLVE, known as one of the best Coachella activations to this day, has created its own REVOLVE festival. Exclusive to only influencers with an invite, it attracts a wide variety of influencers, celebrities, models, and artists. Not only does REVOLVE create picture perfect events for these influencers and celebrities to mingle and take pictures, but the company teamed up with social media influencers to showcase the clothing that is sold on its platforms. Anyone with a TikTok knows all about REVOLVE Fest, as it took up most of the platform’s feed for the entire weekend, showing off outfits, REVOLVE VIP events, gifting suites and more.

American Express had a pop up shop providing sweet treats, wellness activities like a crystal bar, tarot card and astrology readings as well as healing acupressure ear seeding. The lounge also had hydration stations, charging stations and a cash bar. They partnered with Billie Eilish and Conan Gray to create limited edition merch that was sold online at their Amex Artist Shop, as well as at the event in the American Express Lounge. There was one catch, only American Express cardholders and three friends, were VIP into the lounge and shopping events; not only promoting their services but creating a sense of exclusivity that everyone craves, especially at Coachella.

Harry Styles had a pop-up near the main entrance of the festival promoting his beauty brand “Pleasing by Harry Styles.” He sold merch and also showcased his products by providing a nail polish bar experience that offered free manicures to his fans. Fans picked their color of choice from the four-piece set that is being sold online. Nail artist Britney Tokyo, who painted the famous fruit and flowers on Harry Styles’ nails for a performance in 2019, was there among other manicurists working inside the pop-up to bring Styles’ vision to life.

Celebrating their 10th year of being the official vodka of Coachella, Absolut Vodka took it to the next level with their metaverse pop-up, Absolut.Land: a three-floor installation with activities designed to reflect the brand’s history, while driving hype in the real world and the metaverse (Marketing Dive & Marketing Mag). Inside the 3-floor installation was an Anti-Gravity Dance Floor for guests to “flow” from floor to floor; The Absolut Bar where guests could mix virtual cocktails and chat with other avatars, and gift NFT wearables; The Museum Gallery, a tribute to Absolut’s history of iconic art; The Rainbow Rave, a dance party powered by pride that features disco-inspired dance floor; and much more! With the idea to merge the physical and digital worlds, Absolut also had a pop-up location at Coachella and is said to have had an experience where attendees can interact with their digital equivalents.

Lay’s chips headed to Coachella for the first time with its Lay’s FRESH 4D immersive tasting experience at its exclusive Lay’s Potadomes installations and its multi-sensorial Lay’s lounge. Potadomes in the Coachella campground offered a reservation only, four-course tasting experience – serving chips that were served less than 24 hours after they were made. Inside the Lay’s Potadomes, attendees could find a Lay’s Crunch Studios; transforming the Lay’s chip crunch into a hip-hop beat, Lay’s Golden Glow; a space where Lay’s radiating rings were displayed with lighting and electronic music to “feel the energy of Lay’s, and Lay’s Flavor Pop; pairing the brands bold flavors with pop music – to give chip fans the whole 4D experience (Frito Lay North America).

Speaking of a 4D tasting experience – let’s talk food.

While Coachella has always been big into music, arts and fashion – food has taken over within the past few years. Now Coachella not only has a music lineup, but a food lineup as well, with attendees eager to get their hands on overpriced snacks and meals. But that’s not all. Over the past few years, plant-based foods have been inching their way into the food industry, becoming the newest trend, especially with celebrities and influencers. Since Coachella is the place for the hottest and most up-and-coming trends, it partook in hosting more meat and dairy free food vendor options than ever before. 60 percent of all food vendors offered plant-based dishes; twice as many as offered at the 2019 Coachella Festival (Emily Wilson). Some of the best and most talked about plant-based option vendors were Slutty Vegan, serving burgers and fries; Craig’s Vegan Ice Cream; Cena Vegan, offering plant-based burritos; Sweetfin, with their plant-based poke bowls; MANEATINGPLANT serving up noodles and veggies; Backyard Bowls with revolutionary healthy concept bowls; and many more renowned plant-based vendors that are worth trying and definitely not something you can find in the metaverse!

Something you may be able to find more of in the metaverse is the artistic and architectural installations that Coachella goers could view and interact with throughout the festival grounds. These creative installations were full of colors and shapes with the aim to bring more urbanity to the desert. Attendees saw a Balloon Chain sculpture created to look like it was floating in the sky, sculptures of dogs in different positions filled with plants “to underscore the power of nature,” and many more, all to bring color and excitement to the desert grounds. For influencers and celebrities, these beautiful pieces of art helped to create interesting and successful backgrounds for their branded social media posts.

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