What Happened at Coachella 2026: The Carpenter and Bieber Scandals

The Coachella festival in Indio, California, opened with record attendance and three high—profile scandals — cultural, creative and consumer - that flooded social media. All the details are in the Izvestia article.

What happened at Sabrina Carpenter's performance

On the evening of April 10, singer Sabrina Carpenter took to the main stage of the festival as the headliner of the first day. The show was carefully choreographed in the spirit of "old Hollywood": Actor Sam Elliott appeared in a pre—recorded scene inspired by the movie "Psycho," Susan Sarandon played an "older version" of the performer, and in the middle of the set, actor Will Ferrell appeared on stage as a technical employee, ostensibly to fix equipment problems.

The main unplanned moment of the evening was a short remark that Carpenter did not have time to take control of. During the pause after the song "Please Please Please", a distinctive guttural sound came from the crowd. The singer decided that someone was yodeling (singing style), asked to repeat, and when she heard it again, she told the audience that she "didn't like it." When a girl from the crowd explained that it was part of her culture and a traditional call for joy, Carpenter reacted sarcastically.

The sound was instantly recognized by the audience as zagruta, a traditional cry of joy common among the Arab peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. It is commonly heard at weddings and festive celebrations. The next day, on April 11, Carpenter posted an explanation on the social network X (ex. Twitter).

"My apologies. I didn't see this man or hear him clearly. My reaction was pure confusion, sarcasm, without malice. I could have done better," she wrote.

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According to critics, the situation exposed the cultural tactlessness of the artist, while many are sure that Carpenter was just confused, and did not plan a provocation. According to the International Business Times, the conflict broke out precisely because of the ambiguity of motives.

Justin Bieber's Performance

Justin Bieber's performance on April 11 attracted, according to eyewitnesses, the largest audience in the history of the festival. Bieber, who last toured the United States in 2022, caused such a stir that his audience was perhaps the largest in the history of the Coachella field.

Expectations were high: the singer had previously held two small performances in Los Angeles, focusing exclusively on material from the recent albums Swag and Swag II. However, something else happened on the main stage of the festival. Bieber's set mostly consisted of performing numbers alone on a huge stage without any full-fledged stage production.

When the singer did turn to his early discography, he did so in a way that caused a wave of ridicule: he turned on old videos and sang along with the screen to early hits — "Baby" and "I'm the One". The low-quality video was shot almost 20 years ago, at the very beginning of the performer's career. In the middle of the set, several guitarists joined Bieber for deep acoustic tracks, which led to a noticeable outflow of the audience from the field.

The final segment partially rehabilitated the show: four joint performances with invited artists — Dijon, Thames, Wizkid and Mk.gee — ended with fireworks. Nevertheless, Rolling Stone stated: having the opportunity to make a grand impression on a stage that the singer clearly considers important to himself, Bieber did not take advantage of it.

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Cancellation of bookings on Airbnb

Even before the start of the festival, social media was filled with stories about housing chaos. On the eve of the event, dozens of bloggers announced that their Airbnb bookings had been cancelled, presumably so that the hosts could resell the accommodation at a higher price due to increased demand.

Blogger Sophie Rain, who has 15 million subscribers, said that she paid $29,000 for the initial booking, which was canceled three days before the festival, after which she had to rebook the accommodation for $ 83,375. A thematic thread appeared on Reddit offering to share stories about broken armor.

The platform and official structures, however, refuted the mass nature of the phenomenon. An Airbnb representative said that the company does not record a noticeable increase in the number of cancellations in connection with the festival, and listed protective measures: fines for cancellations, blocking the calendar for re-placement, and a ban on placing the same ad at a higher price. The Palm Springs city authorities also denied rumors that they were the ones who sent letters to the owners demanding that the contracts be terminated.

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