The Hype at Coachella This Year? Billboards.
By most accounts, the 130-mile drive from Los Angeles to the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last week was hot, congested and generally unpleasant.But there has been at least one bright spot for the 200,000 or so dehydrated, impatient and aggrieved fans who make the trek for one or both of the three-day events each year: clever billboards.Artists have advertised their sets on the giant placards that dot the route into Indio, Calif., for years. But the 2025 event reached critical mass, in terms of quantity and creativity.“This year was an absolute explosion,” said Morgan Rose, a director of client partnerships at Wilkins Media, who has been doling out highly coveted space on the boards since last fall. “Eleven months out of the year they are completely worthless,” he added.But not this one.Those who bother to look out the windows while slogging down the 10 East may see a billboard for Charli XCX that features her signature shade of green and wonder, “Why did she cross out ‘Brat?’” Or one for Tyla, who is all wet, asking “Got water?” Or one informing all comers in all-caps, “It’s Pronounced Djo.”“Not particularly helpful,” Djo’s manager, Nick Stern, conceded. (The artist in question is the actor Joe Keery, who put out his third album this month.) “But it does lead people to ask and go look.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
