Twenty-six years ago this month, on Oct. 9-10, 1999, the first ever Coachella came to life at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif. Featuring headliners Beck, Morrissey, The Chemical Brothers, Rage Against the Machine and Tool, the event was the debut iteration of the festival that would in the following years become a global touchpoint of music, fashion and culture.
Desert Dreams: The Music, Style and Allure of Coachella, a new book by Billboard senior music correspondent Katie Bain, explores the history and influence of Coachella, looking at how an event with origins with the SoCal punk rock scene became a global phenomenon and barometer for each year’s musical stars and trends. The book is out Tuesday (Oct. 21) via Epic Ink. (Here’s how you can order it.)
The hardcover coffee table book includes more than 150 archival photographs illustrating the festival’s most influential performances, from Rage Against the Machine to Radiohead to the zeitgeist sharing Tupac hologram to Beychella to Lady Gaga, its most iconic on and offstage fashionistas, biggest headlines and much more.
Desert Dreams: The Music, Style, and Allure of Coachella by Katie Bain
Epic Ink
Designed for both frequent Coachella-goers and those who’ve never been to the fest, Desert Dreams captures the evolution of a pop-culture touchstone that transformed how we engage with music, fashion and art.
The book arrives roughly a month after the release of the 2026 Coachella lineup, with Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G set to headline next year’s spectacle. The book looks at how such pop music came to dominate Coachella’s headlining slots, how the festival’s cutting edge livestream bolstered growth and how the rise of social media helped make the polo field into a weekend-long catwalk for models, movie stars, influencers and other cultural luminaries.
