Whether or not it was digital artists claiming the lion’s share of the lineup or the numerous people roaming Empire Polo Membership with “sprouts” on their heads, the message in Indio this yr was loud and clear: EDM and rave tradition are reshaping Coachella.
Because the cruel desert solar step by step lowered its brilliant yellow hues into the horizon, the iridescent buildings inside the fabled venue got here alive as if via some type of chromatic hypnosis. From the newly put in inflatable flower show to the long-lasting Ferris wheel, the expansive phases and artwork installations turned the pageant right into a nocturnal technicolor wonderland.
With darkened skies and thumping basslines emanating from a number of phases, the vitality of the pageant had palpably shifted, drawing parallels to the vibes discovered at beloved EDM fests like Tomorrowland and EDC.
Courtesy of Coachella
From its inception, dance music has at all times been part of the sonically various panorama that’s Coachella. Parts of rave tradition have been lengthy relegated to the confines of the pageant’s beloved Yuma tent, the fan-favorite Do LaB or the storied Sahara stage. However not often did these heart-pounding beats make it previous the Ferris wheel.
Nevertheless, because the tentacles of rave tradition proceed to grip social media and the airwaves, the trailblazing pageant needed to adapt. After increasing its footprint in 2024 to incorporate the beautiful new Quasar stage, which was designed with prolonged DJ units in thoughts, Coachella doubled down in 2025.
From ‘Chella veterans to first-timers, we caught up with a handful of influential DJs in Indio to debate how dance music is altering the panorama of this multi-genre pageant.
TOKiMONSTA
For TOKiMONSTA, returning to the Empire Polo Membership is like coming dwelling. Having first carried out at Coachella in 2011, the LA native has a powerful connection to the legendary pageant.
“One of the main things that’s special about Coachella is that it’s close to home,” she tells EDM.com. “I’m from LA, so this is our festival. Regardless of the press or influencers, all of our friends get together here. It’s always so well-curated and there’s always something here for everyone.”
After attending Weekend One as a fan, TOKiMONSTA was excited to return the next weekend and DJ on the DoLaB stage, the place she first carried out precisely a decade in the past.
“The DoLaB stage is such a unique presence at this festival, and it’s crazy to think that it was exactly 10 years ago when I first played there,” she remembers.
TOKiMOSTA’s Coachella look got here on the heels of the discharge of Everlasting Reverie, a heat, scintillating album she describes as a rediscovery of self. After having to cancel a tour as a consequence of a household emergency, she’s now poised to hit the street in mid-Could, however not earlier than permitting herself to benefit from the various soundscapes discovered at Coachella.
“I make music because I’m a fan of music, so it’s nice to be a fan at this festival and see artists like Lady Gaga, who was incredible,” TOKiMONSTA provides. “I’m not the type of person who will sit in the middle of the crowd—it gives me anxiety—but I was there in the pit watching. It was so captivating.”
As a multi-genre producer herself, she touched on the significance of illustration in a pageant like Coachella.
“The magic of this festival is that you come here just to see where the winds take you. It’s always about the random sets that you pass by, and you say, ‘What is that sound?’ and you find someone new.”
Massano
As a Coachella first-timer, Massano represented the burgeoning melodic techno scene with a b2b set alongside Thoughts In opposition to. The red-hot Liverpool producer, who just lately launched one of many yr’s finest debut albums, had lastly shaken off the jet-lag from Weekend One and was excited for spherical two contained in the Yuma.
“I’m excited to be playing alongside Mind Against and I’m kind of getting used to it now that I’ve played Weekend One,” Massano mentioned. “Since we’re going to have the livestream for Weekend Two, there’s going to be some stuff we wanna show off that will be different.”
The impression that melodic techno has made on American audiences shouldn’t be misplaced on Massano, who grew up listening to legendary bands like The Prodigy and Faithless earlier than being influenced by the sounds of CamelPhat and ARTBAT. He is now an important contributor to the style’s current surge in stateside recognition, particularly after being chosen as one of many fortunate few to open for Anyma throughout the Italian techno famous person’s groundbreaking Las Vegas Sphere residency, a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for which he feels immense gratitude.
“It’s exciting,” Massano says of melodic techno’s rising prominence. “It’s obviously been a crazy time the last three to four years in terms of everyone coming up in the scene. It’s nice to see the hype come up from the likes of Afterlife and Tale of Us, and now I think everyone’s starting to carve their own paths and people are developing their own sounds.”
After his second stint contained in the Yuma, Massano mentioned he deliberate to be one with the folks and stroll round Coachella in hopes of catching units by Travis Scott and Keinemusik.
Indira Paganotto
As a member of Blood Oath, the trio of femme fatales who took over the DoLaB throughout Weekend One, techno famous person Indira Paganotto was already in excessive spirits when discussing the expertise of the pageant’s second weekend.
“The Yuma stage is so special,” she gushes. “I’m a really big fan of the chill vibes, the underground hypnotic vibes. You see the people smiling with their eyes closed, and you can see they are traveling in outer space. I think Yuma was the perfect beginning in our mission.”
That mission? The EDM.com Class of 2023 alum performs her playing cards near her chest, solely expressing that she was a part of a worldwide phenomenon that features fellow techno famous person Sara Landry, who had been named to the following yr’s Class.
“My sister Sara Landry is the pioneer of hard techno, and I love that,” Paganotto says. “She’s kind of like Mulan from Disney. We are women who don’t care, and we seek the truth and we follow.”
Opening up about her love of psytrance, Paganotto characterised the style as poetic and romantic. “Psy has these beautiful Indian and ancestral sounds that are slowly getting to America. I think in a few years they will understand completely,” she mentioned.
Born and raised in Spain, she was hundreds of miles away from the Goan shores the place psytrance originated. When requested how she was launched to the style, she pointed to her father, who was a touring physician and frolicked in India therapeutic deprived youth.
“My mom was an Italian super romantic listening to opera while my father was the hippie in the family,” she continued. “He was a doctor without borders and was helping people in Asia, where he was introduced to the parties in Goa. Since it was the hippie movement, I think I may have a lot of brothers and sisters that I don’t know about, if you know what I’m saying.”
Nevertheless, Paganotto, whose newest album is ready to be launched later this yr, hopes she would not get pigeonholed strictly as a techno or psytrance artist.
“I’m not part of the techno scene, and I’m not part of psy. I’m just an artist,” she affirms. “I love to cook, I love animals, I love people and I love music. And this is just the beginning.”
Pete Tong and Ahmed Spins
As they ready for his or her second Coachella efficiency collectively, Pete Tong and Ahmed Spins got here into the desert with two distinct views. For Tong, the desert is a well-known panorama, having been part of the pageant for the reason that early 2000s.
“I was lucky to be here the second or third year, and I’ve watched it grow,” Tong informed us. “I know the crew and I’m very proud of the effort they put into the build, every year it changes. After Quasar came aboard last year, it’s evolved again this year, and the Sahara seems to get bigger and bigger, and it keeps moving around. That’s what keeps it interesting.”
After which there’s Spins, whose b2b units with Tong mark the primary time he is ever walked the grounds of the Empire Polo Membership. Their efficiency contained in the Yuma might be seen as a type of passing of the torch from a veteran ‘Chella performer to a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first-timer.
“It’s my first time here, and it’s been awesome. I have friends and family here with me and we walked around and took it in,” Spins mentioned, calling Tong a “legend” with whom it is an honor to DJ.
As for the trailblazing Tong, he is now gearing up for one more musical enterprise later this yr.
“I’m actually starting another label called Places in Spaces, which will focus more on my music,” he mentioned. “That will start rolling out in the summer.”
