Work Diaries: Behind the scenes at Coachella with YouTube Music's Andrea Barbosa

I decided to wear a tank top, loose-fitting pants and comfortable sneakers for the first day. I also brought some essentials: a bandana in my bag to protect from dust, sunscreen, handkerchiefs, money, and a cell phone battery.

First up was a meeting with Los Aptos, a Mexican trio that creates awesome Sad Sierreño Alternativo (if you've haven’t heard them, do it now.)

Afternoon: We started with a strong coffee and met early with Los Aptos, who took lots of photos and videos in the YouTube content studio with our Social team. The trio were guest performers at the Dannylux show so we went to watch them play and picked up some official Merch along the way.

The Dannylux show didn’t disappoint (another special guest was Cuco), attracting a huge audience on the Sonora stage — including many proud Mexicans. The highlight was when he brought his father on stage, who had gone viral with the quote: “The last time I was at Coachella, I was picking up trash. Today I watched my son perform." At the end, we went backstage and they promised to visit us at the YouTube Mexico office.

At 5:30 pm, Becky G impressed with her top hits from her Fulanito, Mayores, and brought up guests like Libianca to sing their People's collaboration and Natti Natasha to sing Sin Pijama. In the middle of the show, she celebrated being Mexican by singing a medley of Selena's hits.

After the show Libianca came to visit us in the studio and filmed Shorts and took magazine cover photos. I loved her vibe!

Evening: One of the things I love most about my job is discovering new artists and festivals are a great opportunity for that. On the Gobi stage I had the opportunity to meet Ashnikko, an American singer who mixes pop, hip hop and rock with a very unique style. She entered the stage with her dancers with bold choreography and attitude. Her stage presence and power mesmerizes you!

Of course, the night ended with Bad Bunny with the highlight of the day and probably of the festival. I loved the surprise participation of Grupo Frontera, with whom they currently have their #1 hit “Un X100TO.” But the best part was that they also sang "No se va" and "Bebe Dame,” top hits on YouTube. The audience was a sea of people and the vast majority sang in Spanish with Bad Bunny. A GREAT end to a great day.

Then, I received a message from a colleague letting me know that Eladio Carrion would come to the studio to record content. Within 3 minutes, I confirmed that we had space, and went to look for them to take him into the space. This is the main reason to wear comfortable sneakers at Coachella — you never know when you’ll have to run as fast as you can within the festival grounds.

Finally, Bruses arrived. I’ve been working closely with her since she was a Foundry artist in 2022. Her red-and-black outfit was incredible! She had fun creating content and taking photos of herself in our studio and I introduced her to a lot of other people on the YouTube team.

Evening: With work done for the day, I was free to enjoy the festival. We went to watch Sofi Tukker at the Outdoor Theater and then went to the Coachella stage to see Rosalía. It was interesting watching so many people experience Rosalía for the first time, amazed by her voice and her presence on stage. She gave it her all on Saturday. The surprise guest was Tokischa to interpret her very famous hit “Linda” and personally, one of my favorite songs from my running playlist.

I hadn't eaten since noon, so we grabbed falafel gyros, which were delicious and tasted heavenly after walking from one place to the other for hours.

We closed the day watching Blackpink's super presentation with impeccable choreography and elaborate set and lighting design. Undoubtedly the best show of the day, ending with fireworks to celebrate a great end of day 2. And we have one more day to go!

Day 3: Sunday April 23

Morning: By the second weekend of Coachella the workload drops, so I had time to watch more shows by artists I was curious to see live.

Since it was the last day of the last weekend, we had brunch with the whole team before going home. There were colleagues from New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco and we were able to mingle and catch up in person.

Once they wrapped, I returned to the main stage to see Bjork, a beautiful show accompanied by orchestra, with drones in the sky forming beautiful shapes and mesmerizing the audience.

Of course, I had to end the weekend by trying to get as close as possible to see Blink-182. The 14-year-old me was in the clouds singing the classics, “What's my age again?”,” I miss you,” “The Rock Show,” and more. The audience was dominated by Millennials but I was surprised to see much younger audiences singing along to all the lyrics.

After hours of being on my feet, I wondered if I’d have the energy to see Four Tet x Fred again.. x Skrillex. I will always be grateful for my foolishness this year to stay until the end because I not only found energy to stay, I walked out of the show with twice the energy. I danced and jumped, completely forgetting my sore feet as I was infected with the energy of these artists and fans. It was an unforgettable ending to another successful Coachella.