With previous performances from Harry Styles, Drake and Blackpink, Coachella is famous for its big headliners, but this year the festival has been making a different sort of headline. Over its two-week proceedings, Irish rap trio Kneecap, classic rock band Green Day, gospel R&B outfit Thee Sacred Souls and more all took to the Coachella stage to offer their support to the people of Palestine, alongside other subversive political messaging.

While the festival’s broadcasters chose to cut recording early during many of these speeches, it’s important to note that Coachella has surprisingly radical roots. The festival traces its origins back to a 1993 performance from US grunge band Pearl Jam, who settled on the far-flung Empire Polo Club venue as part of their boycott of venues tied to international booking agents Ticketmaster and the high service charges they force fans to pay – a cause which, over three decades later, is more relevant than ever. 

Still, with a capacity of 250,000 (the third-biggest on the American festival circuit), countless brand partnerships, and promoters Goldenvoice being bought out by Ticketmaster’s main rival AEG just two years after the festival was founded in 1999, Coachella has since become more recognisable as one of the more mainstream festivals around today. It’s in this context that this slew of subversive statements is particularly significant.

Below, we round up all the political statements made over Coachella’s two-weekend proceedings.

KNEECAP 

Speaking on social media after their week one performance, Irish rap trio Kneecap announced that the message “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” was apparently cut from Coachella’s official livestream, alongside a chant celebrating the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. “[We’ll be] back next weekend,” the group concluded their post, and doubled down on their stance during their second Coachella performance last weekend, adding the line “Fuck Israel, free Palestine.” Coachella organisers Goldenvoice have since said they were “blindsided” by the statements. Clearly they weren’t paying attention. 

BERNIE SANDERS INTRODUCES CLAIRO

On April 13, Clairo’s week one performance was opened up by a speech from US Senator and former Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders. “The future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation,” said 83-year-old Sanders, who is currently on his “Fighting Oligarchy” speaking tour across the US. “Clairo has used her prominence to fight for women’s rights and to try to end the terrible, brutal war in Gaza, where thousands of women and children are being killed.”

GREEN DAY 

Classic rock band Green Day altered their lyrics to hit song “Jesus of Suburbia” to also express their support for the suffering of people in Palestine. Where the original lyrics read: “running away from pain when you've been victimised,” lead vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong sang: “running away from pain like the kids from Palestine.”

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS

“I just want to say that it’s a super tough time for people all across America,” announced Amy Taylor, lead singer of Melbourne-based pub rock band Amyl and the Sniffers, referencing the backsliding on diversity and inclusion under current US President Donald Trump. “I want to extend my love and support for all the trans people and all the gay people, to all the black people and all the immigrants, illegal and legal… I also want to extend my heart to the people in Palestine and the people in Ukraine, because fuck dying for other people’s bullshit.” 

THEE SACRED SOULS

Lead Thee Sacred Souls singer Josh Lane included mention of both the ongoing conflict in Palestine, as well as in Congo and Sudan during their week two performance. “Love means that if I deserve freedom, so do you. If I deserve the breath in my lungs, so do you,” he said. “So do the Palestinians. So do the Congolese, so do the Sudanese.”

DARKSIDE

Darkside’s Nicholas Jaar gave special mention to both the people of Palestine as well as the repression of activists within America under President Trump during both of their Coachella performances. “Palestine will be free. These lands that we are on right now, here were committed the genocides that are the blueprint for what’s happening in Palestine right now,” Jaar said at their week one show. “This genocide is funded by American money, with technology from Silicon Valley, and thanks to the complicity of all the politicians in this country. Just protesting a genocide that is happening means you can get deported, like Mahmoud Khalil. That doesn’t feel right.” 

BOB VYLAN 

London-based punk duo Bob Vylan remixed their track “Pretty Songs” to show solidarity with Palestine. “Palestinian lives have always mattered, you were just never told so on TV,” sang lead vocalist Bobbie Vylan. The censorship of these messages by Coachella broadcasters are a case in point, it seems. 

BLONDE REDHEAD

American alternative rock band Blonde Redhead closed their Coachella performance by waving a Palestinian flag and playing a voice recording from detained activist Mahmoud Khalil. They also held up a banner saying “Free Them All”, in reference to the students, like Khalil, who had been arrested and detained for speaking out on Palestinian rights.