Coachella crowd slammed: ‘Worst vibes possible’

What’s going on with Coachella? The vibes are “painful” at the iconic festival, with one frustrated music legend calling everyone out.

The crowds at huge US music festival Coachella have been labelled “embarrassing” after footage circulated of Blur frontman Damon Albarn trying in vain to get the festival’s huge crowd to sing along with his band’s biggest hit.

Albarn tried to engage the audience in a call-and-response singalong to the wordless hook of Blur’s 1994 hit single Girls & Boys, but his frustration grew with each attempt to get them involved.

“Ow-ow-ow-ah-ah-ow – you go!” he instructed them, only to be met with near-silence.

“You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well f**king sing this,” he announced, one hand in pocket, indictating Coachella 2024 may well be the last time Blur play the festival.

“Yeah they’re not coming back …” one TikTok user captioned the clip, which soon spread on social media.

Damon Albarn was reduced to begging for a crowd singalong at Coachella. Picture: AFP

“The crowd for blur at coachella was so embarrassing damon im so sorry I wasn’t there,” one person tweeted.

“THIS IS PAINFUL,” another complained.

“Coachella looks like the f**ing worst. Poor Blur,” said one fan.

“I’m convinced coachella has the worst vibes and people possible. it’s f**king Blur, show some respect!” wrote another.

But others questioned whether Albarn could really have expected Coachella’s young crowd to go wild for 30-year-old songs.

“Who booked Blur for Coachella in 2024 and expected children to know these songs?!” one person asked.

Another reunited 90s band also played Coachella over the weekend: No Doubt, with Gwen Stefani and her former bandmates putting aside a rumoured years-long feud to deliver a hit-heavy performance.

Gwen Stefani, 54 and back to rockin’ out with No Doubt. Picture: Getty

But fans watching the livestream had a similar complaint for their set, feeling the Coachella crowd weren’t appreciative enough for the live return of a band who have not performed on stage together in almost a decade.

“As much as I liked the performance last night, the crowd for no doubt was so lame,” one person tweeted.

“I don’t like how dead the crowd was during No Doubt’s set,” wrote another.

Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal of No Doubt perform at Coachella. Picture: AFP

Their 16-song set included half a dozen songs from their breakthrough album, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom, plus a cameo by pop-rock star (and big No Doubt fan) Olivia Rodrigo for the Return of Saturn highlight Bathwater.

As yet, No Doubt’s Coachella performance was strictly a one-off – but with the 30th anniversary of their biggest album looming next year, it seems the time could be right for a large-scale reunion tour.

Elsewhere at Coachella, Lana Del Rey surprised the crowd by bringing Billie Eilish out during her set, the two stars dueting on Eilish’s Ocean Eyes and Del Rey’s Video Games together.

The festival continues next weekend in Indio, California.

Originally published as Coachella crowd slammed: ‘Worst vibes possible’