Sabrina Carpenter, more than most of her popstar peers, loves a hint of Hollywood glamour: a vintage convertible, a deep red lipstick, a flirty gold minidress.
And, on Friday, April 10 at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, an entirely new headlining performance built around that Hollywood fairytale of a young woman who rolls into town and makes every dream come true.
Over 20 songs and 90 minutes, Carpenter used her considerable talents to tell a story in five acts of an imagined lifetime of Hollywood triumphs with a few regrets included too.
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Turnstile performs on the Outdoor Theatre stage during day one of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
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Turnstile performs on the Outdoor Theatre stage during day one of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
It included songs primarily from her two most recent albums, “Man’s Best Friend” and “Short ‘n Sweet,” with hits from each scattered across the night’s performances. In Act I, which opened with a short noir-like film starring Sam Elliott as a ’50s detective he warns of moving to California, included such hits as “Taste” and “Manchild.”
Sets and stage design were terrific. The stage shifted from green fields reminiscent of Griffith Park into a Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the early part of the night. By the end of the first act a sign that read SABRINALAND rose from one side of the set.
The vintage feel and theatrical production continued with “Please, Please, Please,” sung in an old-fashioned recording studio, and “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night,” which ended with her walking into a dive bar set by the end of the song.
After “My Man on Will Power,” which included male dancers walking in place on a lengthy treadmill, a live monologue by actress Susan Sarandon playing a future Sabrina looking back on her life, took 10 minutes or slightly more. It was the least successful part of the production due to the fact that Sarandon couldn’t really be heard, which … made it hard to relate.
“Go Go Juice” introduced a dance studio set, used for a romantic ballet with a male dancer on “Such a Funny Way.” On “Feather,” the production created a Marilyn Monroe movie-like scene with Carpenter in white surrounded by backing dancers in black Vegas showgirl burlesque show outfits, all of them dancing in and on chairs.
After “Bed Chem,” actor Will Ferrell came out in the role of a cranky electrical worker, called to fix the stage electricity. The final set included several of Carpenter’s biggest hits such as “Juno” and “Espresso,” and wrapped up the night successfully with “Goodbye” and “Tears.”
Carpenter’s headlining set was a truly terrific production and performance. Here are the other highlights we found as we cover the festival in the dark of night on Friday.
The xx
“We’ve been dreaming about this moment for such a long time,” Romy Croft, the guitarist of the trio shared as they returned to Coachella, reuniting onstage for one of their first performances together in nearly eight years.
There was a quiet weight to it, with Oliver Sim reflecting on their history with the festival: “We played our first Coachella in 2010, we’ve come back and back to play as a band, to play solo shows, and we’ve come back for the love of it. And this one has felt the most special after such a long time away, so thank you so much for having us.”
The group moved through a run of early standouts like “Intro” and “Crystalised,” with Jamie xx weaving in subtle remixes and production flourishes, even nodding to his wider catalog — including work with Drake on “Take Care.” Romy stepped forward for solo moments that softened the set’s edges, but the real impact came from the three of them simply being back together, locked into the understated chemistry that’s always defined them.
Katseye’s ‘Golden’ moment
The girl group Katseye drew a huge crowd to the Sahara Tent for their set on Friday. They’d have drawn even more if fans knew that Katseye would have Huntr/x, the trio who sang the Oscar-winning song “Golden” on stage Friday.
Fans screamed and sang along on “Golden” from “K-pop Demon Hunters” for which Katseye and Huntr/x singers Ejae, Rei Ami, and Audrey Nuna sang the song together to the delight of fans. Other highlights included show opener “Pinky Up,” getting its live debut at Coachella, “Debut” and “Mean Girls.”
Turnstile
From the moment Turnstile hit the stage, it felt less like a festival set and more like a gathering point, as if the entire crowd had shown up just for them. Everywhere you looked, fans were decked out in Turnstile shirts and merch, creating a sea of devotion that blurred the line between audience and community.
Cameras dove straight into the pit, cutting through bodies mid-collision and landing on faces screaming every word, while clips from the band’s past year on tour flashed across the screens, reinforcing that this energy extends far beyond a single stage.
“The hardcore scene can give you so much, love, friends, community,” one fan shared onscreen, a sentiment that played out in real time as mosh pits opened and expanded across the crowd, constantly shifting, pulling people in and spitting them back out.
“I wrote this song on my grandfather’s piano, it’s called ‘I Care,’” frontman Brendan Yates said, briefly grounding the chaos before launching back into it.
Moby the OG
Electronic musician Moby, the only artist on the bill this year who also played at the first Coachella in 1999, delivered a dance fest of a set that included career hits.
Singer Jacob Lusk, who performed at Coachella in 2023 with his group Gabriels, joined Moby for a pair of gorgeous songs in “When It’s Cold I’d Like to Die” and “Natural Blues.” “Bodyrock” and “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” were also highlights of the set.
“I have a confession to make,” he said at one point late in the show. “I am many things. I’m an animal-rights activist. I’m stridently anti-Trump. But in my heart I’m still a little rave kid.
“I want to dedicate this next song to anyone who was ever out in a field or in a warehouse (for a rave), and when the sun came up you thought, ‘This is going to be all right.’”
Blood Orange
At the Mojave Tent, Blood Orange quietly redefined the live setup as one of the first artists to use Coachella’s new circular stage configuration. Positioned in the round, Dev Hynes gave the crowd a 360-degree experience, allowing fans to take in the set from any angle rather than a single front-facing view.
The performance itself leaned intimate and restrained, with Hynes moving between guitar and cello, reworking songs like “Charcoal Baby” into softer, more orchestral moments. A cover of “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” added to the meditative tone, while two backing vocalists helped fill out the space. It wasn’t built on spectacle, but on mood, a slower, reflective reset in the middle of a packed night.
Hot Mulligan
Midwest emo and pop punk act Hot Mulligan was the last of its genre to take the Sonora stage late Friday evening. The band joked about being on at the same time as the headlienr, shaking their fists, saying, “How dare you, Sabrina Carpenter?!” and jesting that it was the beginning of their “beef.”
Despite a large chunk of the festival goers being at the mainstage, plenty of fans gathered and screamed back the lyrics of “Shhhh! Golf Is On,” “Featuring Mark Hoppus” and at the end of the set, “*Equip Sunglasses*.”
Not for Radio
After leading a set at the Outdoor Theatre at last year’s Coachella with the Marías, María Zardoya was back in the desert performing under her solo project Not for Radio, marking its first music festival appearance. The singer posted on social media last weekend that she would be on the weekend one lineup, and it was later announced that she would be taking the stage inside the Sonora tent.
Festival goers who thought they could camp out at Hot Mulligan, who performed before her, and beat the line to get in were mistaken. Signs around the indoor space said staff planned to clear the whole tent an hour before her set, prompting many people to form a line nearly two hours before. The line stretched past the barricades into the Gobi Tent, and unfortunately, not everyone was allowed in.
When fans finally got inside, they were greeted by two moss-like shrubs that were tangled with bright white light bulbs. The setting instantly tipped fans off that they were in for a show that not only features music from Not for Radio’s debut album, “Melt,” but also a structured theatrical show first seen in her Winter in the Garden Tour. The show, which is a loose interpretation of “Swan Lake,” is divided into three acts: “Enchanted Fireflies,” “Swan in the Night,” and “The Underworld.” In the first act, she appeared in a fluffy white gown resembling a swan’s wings and performed “Puddles,” “Moment” and “Water Under Your Nose.”
The second act featured “My Turn,” “Comet” and “Swan” before a man dressed in a black fur coat swept Zardoya off her feet, then as he kneeled down, her body went limp as if life itself left her body and was perhaps meant to symbolize death and rebirth. She then came back in a black dress, performed a cover of the Marías’ “No One Noticed,” a new song, and closed the set with “Ache” and “Back to You.”
The performance, much like the album, was full of ethereal vocals and jagged, trippy, psychedelic chord progressions. Although her solo project draws comparisons to the Marías, Zardoya seems prepared to show the world what she’s capable of on her own, commanding the spotlight. Based on the way fans reacted to her stage presence and theatrics, this may just be the tip of her solo potential.