Sabrina Carpenter’s big stunt

Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella headlining set turned a vintage car into a launch pad, with water jets blasting the vehicle into the air during Weekend 1 in Indio, California. (apnews.com) Carpenter played the main Coachella stage on Friday, April 10, the opening night of the festival’s first weekend at the Empire Polo Club. Coachella’s official 2026 announcement listed her among this year’s headliners and set the festival for April 10 to 12 and April 17 to 19. (coachellavalley.com) The stunt fit a set built around old Hollywood imagery. Rolling Stone reported that Carpenter arrived in a vintage vehicle, while Billboard said the stage carried a giant “SABRINAWOOD” sign and a film-studio look. (rollingstone.com) (billboard.com) The car shot became one of the weekend’s defining images because it compressed the whole show into one frame: Carpenter, a classic convertible, and a stage effect scaled for a headliner slot. The Guardian and The Associated Press both singled out the image in photo coverage published on April 13. (theguardian.com) (apnews.com) This was Carpenter’s first time headlining Coachella, two years after her 2024 festival appearance. Rolling Stone and Billboard both noted that she had told the crowd in 2024 that she would return as a headliner, then did exactly that on April 10, 2026. (rollingstone.com) (billboard.com) Her set leaned hard on scale and celebrity. Rolling Stone reported appearances by Will Ferrell, Sam Elliott, Corey Fogelmanis and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson, while Billboard described the production as her called-shot jump into full headliner spectacle. (rollingstone.com) (billboard.com) The music matched the production size. Rolling Stone said Carpenter packed 20 songs into the set, including live debuts of “When Did You Get Hot,” “Sugar Talking,” and “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” from *Man’s Best Friend*. (rollingstone.com) The image also landed because Coachella still runs on photographs as much as livestreams. Coachella’s 2026 announcement said YouTube remained the exclusive livestream partner, but the pictures that traveled fastest after Friday night were the ones that made the show look enormous. (coachellavalley.com) (theguardian.com) Weekend 2 starts on Friday, April 17, and Carpenter is scheduled to headline again. After the first weekend, the airborne car is the visual the next crowd will expect to see — and the one photographers will be waiting to catch again. (coachellavalley.com)