New festival Bunker spots
On‑the‑ground guides are flagging Coachella’s updated Bunker, refreshed merch areas, and new social‑first installations as must‑see festival spots for visitors who treat the festival like a roaming art fair. (The Desert Sun’s first‑look and the Press‑Enterprise’s festival guide pointed to these practical, photoable additions). (desertsun.com) (pressenterprise.com).
At Coachella 2026, one of the most talked-about new attractions is not a stage at all but a buried room called the Bunker, set between the Sahara tent and the Do Lab and built to hold roughly 300 people out of the Indio heat. Goldenvoice turned that space into a 75-minute large-format film installation tied to Radiohead’s “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” which both hit their 25th anniversary this year. That shift says a lot about what Coachella has become in 2026: the festival grounds now work like a walkable mix of concert venue, design fair, and pop-up district, with people planning routes around installations and activations as much as set times. The merch setup changed too, with Coachella expanding attention around artist merchandise areas and adding a “Coachella Merchandise: Then & Now” walk-through backed by BELLA+CANVAS, the festival’s official blanks provider. The official festival store is also pushing 2026-specific items hard, with lineup shirts listed at $45, hoodies at $75, hats at $35, and blankets at $100 on the Coachella shop. Around that core, the grounds are packed with photo-first stops that are built to be visited quickly between sets, including Coachella Just Got Miniversed and the 2026 Art Studios. The brand-activation map is just as dense, with guides pointing festivalgoers to stations from Pinterest, Medicube, Always, Secret, Starbucks, and other sponsors offering touch-ups, samples, drinks, or freebies instead of performances. So the new Coachella scavenger hunt in April 2026 is simple: duck underground for a Radiohead film, cross the grounds for limited merch, then keep moving through branded spaces and mini-installations that are designed to be experienced in the length of a set change.
