Coachella fans across the globe have been eagerly waiting for the moment the festival finally gets underway.
That wait is almost over, with only days to go until this year’s event welcomes major names including Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G at the top of the bill, alongside plenty of other anticipated performances.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is set to take over the Empire Polo Club once again for two consecutive weekends (April 11–13 and April 18–20). Sabrina Carpenter and Teddy Swims are due to help launch the festivities, while Justin Bieber, Addison Rae and Sombr are also scheduled to feature across the two opening nights.
Even though the festival is a global powerhouse that attracts roughly 125,000 attendees each year, it doesn’t win over everyone — and some people have even suggested they’ve been kept out altogether.
Machine Gun Kelly, who recently launched his Lost Americana tour in Perth, previously said he was banned from Coachella in 2024.
Back in 2024, the 35-year-old performer — known as MGK — posted just hours before the California festival began that he wouldn’t be going, claiming he was “banned.”
In a post on X, the rapper-turned-rocker said he’d never actually attended because “they banned me in 2012 for whatever reason”.
The artist, who previously dated Megan Fox and is dad to 14-year-old Cassie, also wrote, “I was looking forward to finally going this year, but my daughter’s volleyball tournament ended up on the same days so y’all will have to lmk how it is, she comes first.”
It also wasn’t the first time he’d taken aim at the festival. MGK — whose real name is Colson Baker — criticized Coachella shortly after the 2012 edition wrapped.
“Its corporate as f**k and they only accept the accepted but fake like they dont,” he added at the time. “Sad that music is so trendy now.”
Despite those earlier comments, the following year he still popped up unexpectedly on Friday, April 11, appearing alongside Three 6 Madua and his friend Travis Barker.
MGK — who welcomed his and Megan Fox’s daughter, Saga Blade, in March 2025 — was spotted moving along to to ‘Hit a Muthaf—-‘ while Barker played the drums.
“Let me cook,” MGK captioned a video of the collaboration on X, before sharing another caption and a photo with Juicy J to explain why the link-up mattered to him.
“Juice believed in me 2011 before the world did,” he wrote.
“First rapper to pull up and get high with me. First major feature I had. The chorus of ‘wild boy’ is sampled from our song on his mixtape.”