Coachella’s weekend two live stream was set to begin Friday at 4 p.m. PDT on the festival’s YouTube channel, bringing nearly the full run of sets from seven main stages to people in Indio and to viewers at home. Sabrina Carpenter was due on the main stage at 9 p.m. Friday, with Anyma scheduled at midnight if the winds cooperated.
The draw was not just access, but control. YouTube’s returning multiview feature would let viewers watch up to four streams at once, a useful option on a schedule that still forces choices even when the festival tries to avoid clashes. KATSEYE was set for the Sahara Tent at 8 p.m. Friday, while later in the weekend Justin Bieber was listed for 11:25 p.m. Saturday and Kacey Musgraves was added at 3 p.m. Saturday. Sunday would close with KAROL G at 10:10 p.m. and BIGBANG at 10:30 p.m.
The full schedule was being sorted out in both text and image form, with Time Out noting the lineup for weekend two and the stream schedule for those on the ground and those watching from afar. The channel was expected to keep going through Sunday night, then roll into a repeat of the first day’s sets around 1 a.m. before shifting the next day’s feed to selected highlights from the day before.
That setup makes the stream feel less like a passive broadcast than a moving menu. Jaqck Glam was slated for 4:10 to 5:10 p.m., Teddy Swims for 5:20 to 6:10 p.m. and The xx for 7 to 7:55 p.m. on one run of the schedule, while other stages carried Jeremiah Red at 2:50 to 3:50 p.m., Dabeull at 4 to 4:50 p.m., Lykke Li at 5:20 to 6:10 p.m., Dijon at 6:40 to 7:30 p.m., Turnstile at 8:05 to 9 p.m. and Disclosure at 10:40 to 11:55 p.m. A separate stretch had Jim Smith from 1 to 1:40 p.m., Febuary from 1:40 to 2:10 p.m., Carolina Durante from 2:35 to 3:15 p.m., Wednesday from 3:40 to 4:20 p.m., Freshwater from 4:50 to 5:30 p.m., The Two Lips from 6 to 6:40 p.m., Ninajirachi from 7:10 to 8 p.m. and Cachirula & Loojan from 8:25 to 9:05 p.m.
Coachella has eight main stages plus a pair of fest-within-a-fest stages, and the festival generally keeps set time conflicts to a minimum. Even so, the stream turns every overlap into a decision, especially when the biggest names are stacked late. The answer to whether the live stream is worth setting aside an evening for is yes: it was built to make weekend two watchable in real time, and to keep working after the desert goes dark.
