From edible spray-painted ice cream bars to bone-conduction lollipops, the desert’s biggest weekend proved that packaging, spatial design, and sensory branding are the new headliners.
Coachella hit a commercial turning point around 2016, when courting influencers and making everything as Instagrammable as possible became a top priority. A decade later, the brand activation ecosystem has become a parallel festival unto itself, with over 100,000 attendees per day flowing between the polo grounds and a sprawling network of offsite pop-ups, pool parties, and immersive brand worlds scattered across the Coachella Valley.
For its 25th anniversary, the festival’s headliners were Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber, and Karol G. But the real design story happened offstage. Here are 21 CPG and consumer brand activations that defined the weekend.
