Who's headlining Coachella

Coachella opens Friday, April 10, with Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G topping the three nights that set the tone for Weekend 1 in Indio, California. The festival’s official site lists April 10 to 12 and April 17 to 19, 2026, at the Empire Polo Club. (coachella.com, coachella.com) Those three names tell you what Coachella is selling this year: Sabrina Carpenter brings current United States pop radio heat, Justin Bieber brings a stadium-scale comeback name, and Karol G brings Spanish-language global reach to the same main stage. Billboard reported all three as the 2026 headliners when the lineup was announced. (billboard.com) This is not a one-weekend event with a different cast the second time around. Coachella runs the same festival across two weekends, so the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday headliners become the anchors for both the in-person crowd and the online audience planning around those slots. (coachella.com, coachella.com) The setting matters because Coachella is built like a temporary city in the desert, not a single-stage concert. The official livestream page says seven stages will stream live on YouTube, which means the headliners are the biggest draw inside a much larger maze of overlapping sets. (coachella.com) If you are not in Indio, the official Coachella YouTube channel starts the 2026 livestream at 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, April 10. YouTube says viewers can watch up to four stages at once on television through multiview, which turns the festival into something closer to channel surfing than waiting for one broadcast feed. (youtube.com, blog.google) Sabrina Carpenter’s slot is the Friday opener, which gives Coachella a very current pop face right at the front of the weekend. USA Today called Carpenter, Bieber, and Karol G first-time Coachella headliners when the 2026 lineup was unveiled. (usatoday.com) Justin Bieber’s Saturday booking is the most obvious comeback play in the group. Billboard tied his headlining spot to his return after releasing the surprise album “Swag,” which put him back into the center of pop conversation before festival season arrived. (billboard.com) Karol G closes Sunday, and that gives the festival a final-night headliner whose audience is far bigger than the English-language pop lane Coachella has leaned on in earlier years. The 2026 lineup page places her at the top tier of the poster alongside Carpenter and Bieber, making that shift visible before a single song starts. (coachella.com) By Thursday, April 9, the practical question is less “who is playing Coachella” than “when do I need to tune in.” Entertainment Weekly and the Orange County Register both framed the week around set times and viewing plans, which is what happens when the headliners are already locked in and the festival is one day away. (ew.com, ocregister.com)