Coachella 2022

About

Coachella 2022 is the 21st edition of the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which took place in April 2022. Online discussion and memes about the event centered on a performance by Joji in which he was sick and forced to finish his set, artist Doja Cat and her announcement of Taco Bell's "Mexican Pizza" coming back to stores, as well as Twitch streamer Hasan Piker's outfit at the festival which included an expensive Hawaiian shirt that he was ridiculed for wearing.

Background

On June 1st, 2021, Coachella announced its 2022 festival.^[1] It was to be held on the weekends of April 15 to 17 and April 22 to 24. Among the festival's headliners were Harry Styles, Billy Eilish, Lil Baby, Swedish House Mafia, Doja Cat and The Weeknd. Ticket sales opened on June 4th, 2021.

Developments

On October 14th, 2021, the Rolling Stone^[2] announced that the COVID-19 vaccination requirement had been scrapped for the festival.

On October 18th, 2021, Coachella tweeted^[3] an image of the polo field, earning roughly 5,600 likes in six months. On January 12th, 2022, the Coachella 2022 lineup was released, posted by the Twitter^[4] account HSHQ, which earned roughly 238,900 likes in three months (shown below, left). Reactions ensued based on the line-up across social media. For instance, Twitter^[5] user cherryvoicenote tweeted, "harry is not doing fucking coachella 2022 with a 2019 album," earning roughly 2,200 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

Kanye West Petition

On March 19th, 2022, RapTV tweeted^[6] that there was an ongoing petition to remove Kanye West from the headliner lineup, earning roughly 13,600 likes in one month. On March 25th, RapTV announced^[7] that the petition had amassed roughly 50,000 signatures. On April 4th, Kanye was dropped from the line-up and replaced with The Weeknd as the headliner. The announcement was tweeted^[8] by Complex magazine on the 6th, which also announced that ticket prices and sales had plummeted.

Many users reacted to the development online shortly after the announcement. For instance, on April 4th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user LAxFLAME tweeted, "Coachella removing Travis Scott and Kanye West from performing gotta be the worst decision they could’ve made," earning roughly 12,100 likes in two weeks (shown below).

Joji's Performance

On April 18th, 2022, Joji, also known as George Miller of Filthy Frank, performed at the festival. During his performance, fans noticed that he was trying to end his set early. However, it seemed he was not allowed to leave the stage. At the end of his set, he thanked the audience but also apologized for his condition, blaming his lack of enthusiasm on an unknown health issue. The clip of him apologizing was uploaded to YouTube on April 18th by the channel lizardBoi, which earned roughly 17,200 views in one day (shown below).

Doja Cat and Mexican Pizza

In February 2022, Doja Cat leaked her Taco Bell Super Bowl LVI commercial on Instagram Live after they allegedly refused to bring back the Mexican Pizza.^[10] Two months later, during her Coachella performance, Doja Cat stated, "I brought back the Mexican Pizza by the way!" A clip of her saying it was posted by Twitter^[11] user cateblanchyes on April 18th, which earned roughly 42,000 views in one day (shown below).

Hasan Piker's Hawaiian Shirt

On the first day of the festival, April 15th, 2022, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker arrived at the festival. He posted multiple Instagram stories and livestreams of his journey there with Will Neff. On April 16th, the Twitter^[12] account ostonox tweeted screenshots from Piker's documentation, revealing that the Hawaiian shirt he was wearing at the festival cost $1,100 and was made by Gucci. They used this as evidence to criticize Piker and his socialist politics, labeling him as an expensive consumer instead. The tweet gained roughly 34,400 likes in three days (shown below).

Memes and tweets about Hasan's outfit appeared online going into the weekend. For instance, on April 18th, Twitter^[13] user iggysgarden tweeted a photo of Frank and Charlie from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia wearing Hawaiian shirts with, "hasan piker and will neff coachella 2022," earning roughly 11,800 likes in one day (shown below, left). Also on the 18th, Twitter^[14] user reputasun tweeted, "Me wearing my $100 hasan hoodie I ordered 6 months ago at home waiting for hasan to stream again vs his $10000 coachella fit," earning roughly 4,400 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References