Illustration by Annelise Capossela/For The Washington Post; iStock
For creators like makeup artist Sydney Morgan, Coachella is both an “I made it” moment and the most demanding work trip of the year.
“Weekend one is very much the ‘Creator Olympics’,” said Morgan, a beauty creator with more than 20 million followers across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram who is attending the festival for her fifth time this year. Instead of going with a brand, she planned to self fund her weekend this time around – though she later landed a YouTube deal to help cover her costs.
Morgan estimates she is investing $10,000 to attend, between festival tickets, outfits and renting an Airbnb with six other creators (which needs to be both walking distance from the festival and have a pool for creating content). It’s the least she’s ever spent to attend, after cutting back on other costs, such as not hiring a stylist. But it’s worth it, she said, because Coachella is an investment.
While the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is best known as a major music event, the festival and the constellation of exclusive brand activations orbiting it have become a cultural and commercial apex for the creator economy. Millions of dollars are on the line for creators and brands chasing a breakout moment that boosts followers, amplifies cultural influence and drives real revenue.
In the weeks leading up to the desert weekend’s kickoff this Friday, social media feeds have filled with aspiring influencers angling for tickets and brand deals, planning and making outfits and content, or lamenting their lack of party invites or being uninvited. For those who do secure their way, the payoff can be substantial: a rare convergence of visibility, networking and potentially career-defining content opportunities.
“There are so many times girls go from literally zero to 100-kind-of vibes just from Coachella content," said Amanda Smith, a talent manager at UnderCurrent Talent. “You could genuinely go from 60,000 to 300,000 followers in just a couple of days … that can really only be done at Coachella.”
That potential payoff means that for creators who manage to secure a spot on the list at any Coachella-adjacent event, the festival is just as much work as play, if not more.
“It is probably the one place where you can guarantee that any brand or agency has at least one person attending,” said Rebeca Partida, another talent manager at UnderCurrent Talent. Creators are booked to attend dozens of activations and events with brands per day, all of which are spread across the Coachella Valley.
Managers said they prepare creators by telling them it will be the craziest three days of their life, that they won’t sleep and will likely spend half of the day in a car. It’s draining, and creators going with a brand have to keep up a good face and not show any crankiness.
Morgan’s first Coachella trip was with a beauty brand that coordinated the entire experience, from the bus to the desert, to resort hotel suites and makeup artists on site to help attendees get ready, all in “exchange for lots and lots of content, lots of deliverables and lots of very strict timelines.”
“I had a good time, but one of the days, I didn't even end up making it to the festival because we had so many deliverables all day that I was like, I gotta stay home and edit these,” Morgan recalled. “I was also so grateful that they brought me in the first place. I wanted to make sure that I was giving them good quality content. And the thing is, if you go to the festival grounds, you don't really have service to be editing and exporting footage, so you kind of have to do that from wherever you're staying.”
Such brand trips can be a culture shock, Smith said. "It's crazy watching these girls go from 50,000 followers in a nice little niche town in like, Missouri, and flying to Coachella Valley being treated like literally A-list talent. … They're ecstatic, some of these girls are crying with how incredible it is to experience.”
In an effort to be able to actually enjoy the festival more this year, Morgan and her friend group are heading to the desert two days early this week to pre-film content. She has built an itinerary for the group to shoot their various videos and said the group will take Instagram photos in outfits and film transition videos before the festival weekend even begins, as well as a Roblox “Dress to Impress”-inspired video that she’s planning to merge Coachella into her channel’s typical style.
The work is worth it, she said, because of her audience’s demand and expectation for festival content. “It’s such a big cultural moment … I want to live up to their expectations and make the best content possible for them.”
This story is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by WP Creator, a new business outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about WP Creator.
