While major headlining sets at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival from Lana Del Rey, Tyler the Creator and Doja Cat are slated to be streamed online from the festival on April 12-14 and 19-21, there are some acts and stages that will be exclusive to the in-person experience at the three-day event.
A notable absence from the set times included on the official festival programming is the DoLab, a product of brothers Dede, Jesse, and Josh Flemming. While they would like to see some of the acts at the stage live-streamed, they wonder if maybe leaving it unstreamed might better preserve what they’ve built.
“The DoLab is one of those things that’s about being in the moment and being there in person, not sitting at home on a couch and watching a party happen,” said Jesse Flemming in a recent Zoom interview.
The unofficial stage wasn’t something the brothers planned on creating, but it has become a staple of the festival for the past 17 years, incorporating colorful themes, electronic beats and live aerial dancers, which has helped carve out its place among the many stages and activations at Coachella.
This year’s design featured mushroom-like structures with colorful curtains that flowed with the breezy winds of the desert. The design provided plenty of shade for festivalgoers looking to cool down with the help of the misters, while more fans gravitated to the front and center of the stage.
“I actually haven’t checked this stage out before but I came to grab a beer and liked what I heard,” said Stephanie Ramirez, of Monrovia. “I feel like more people are grooving in this corner of the festival and it seems like a pretty chill spot to sit down for a second.”
The reputation of the dance party vibe within Coachella increased in notoriety with the space’s surprise DJ performances that have previously featured sets by Diplo, Odeza, Rüfüs Du Sol, and Elderbrook. This year’s Friday surprises will include performances by Sofi Tukker and DJ Pee. Wee (Anderson Paak.).
“We’re always trying to put on the best show possible, and because we’ve been this for a long time and the world’s gotten out to more artists and it’s just become a cool place to play at Coachella,” Jesse Flemming said. “A lot of people are just coming to us these days and asking if they can come play on our stage, so our lineups are slowly getting bigger and bigger.”
The DoLab hosts a mix of up-and-coming artists and well-established stars, with more acts each day compared to the other festival stages. Dede Flemming said an advantage of mainly having DJs performing is that the transition between them is shorter than it would be if they were instrumental bands, which allows them to squeeze in more sets and keep the party going.
“At all the other stages, a show will happen, and then it’ll be like a 45-minute break, while they change over the stage. So all the people leave and so does all the energy but we just keep going,” Jesse Flemming said. “The energy builds all day long. It’s a really incredible vibe and some people come in and they never leave.”
While other festival stages may be planned meticulously weeks in advance, the brothers have a much more laidback approach that is reflective of their good time attitudes curated through the space. They leave plenty of open slots and book performers a lot closer to the festival weekends.
“We take our time and we fill it in with big acts that aren’t actually playing the festival,” Jesse Flemming said. “They just pop in as a surprise that we’ll announce a couple of hours before the show and then everybody who is waiting to find out who’s going to play a surprise set will run over and be a part of that. We’ve got a lot of pretty special moments that are about to happen this weekend.”
The surprise aspect at the stage has only been occurring for about a decade, and like the rise of the DoLab, it was also unplanned. In one of the past festival iterations, a performer dropped out, prompting Jesse to poke around through their list of friends, which led them to book Bonobo, the Los Angeles-based DJ.
“It was such a special moment that we were like, ‘Let’s do this again,” Jesse Flemming said. “So every year we have a few surprises, but it’s kind of gotten out of hand,” he joked. “I think we have 13 surprises over both weekends and there’s almost like two, sometimes three, surprises a day. A lot of the music that is going to be on our stages, people don’t always know what it’s going to be.”
“I saw Diplo here before and that was fire,” Tyler Daniels, of Stockton said. “I like coming weekend one because of all the wild surprises and I go to a lot of EDM festivals that are sort of becoming the same lineups and I think this keeps it fresh.”
Related Articles
Coachella 2024: Here’s what you missed on day one
Coachella 2024: Fans find community at music festival campground
Coachella 2024: Vampire Weekend added to lineup, set times are announced
Coachella 2024: What you need to know before heading out to Indio
Coachella 2024: 13 acts you won’t want to miss at the festival or on live stream
While the brothers curate the DoLab, they’re also responsible for the Lightning in a Bottle festival that they describe as a mix of Coachella and Burning Man. The event celebrated 20 years last year and will return in May at Buena Vista Lake with performances by Skrillex, James Blake, M.I.A. Fatboy Slim, Lane 8, Labrinth. The festival has a similar vibe and message to what they’ve brought to Coachella.
“Put the lineup schedule you have down,” Dede Flemming said. “Don’t worry about who you thought you were going to see. Just get lost. Don’t be beholden to what you thought you wanted to do. Be in the moment and let the experience just kind of dictate your your weekend.”
