Pop Spotlight

While we may have spent the past two years disappointed by Coachella’s mandated hiatus, event organizers have been gearing up for its reintroduction. With a stacked lineup and stellar activations in store for the festival’s comeback, all signs point to this year’s iteration as its best yet and Rolling Stone’s presence will be no exception. 

 To quench your thirst for live entertainment Rolling Stone and Meta will reactivate the Creator House — a collaborative project which recently presented a weekend of unparalleled programming at SXSW – on Friday, April 15th and Saturday, April 16th. Situated at the intersection of tech and media, the SXSW pop-up saw two days of interactive panels led by digital mavericks, performances from fast-rising music acts and content creation opportunities – including a Facebook and Instagram Reels studio. While the Austin event was met with fanfare from both artists and creators, it’s only natural things look a little different in the Golden State.

 Eschewing deep dives into industry dynamics, the Coachella Creator House will instead explore entertainment’s foremost frontiers. Virtual reality newbies and veterans alike can test their skills via rounds of the adrenaline-inducing Beat Saber, a beloved virtual reality rhythm game that challenges you to match beats to music at a record pace. 

 Quest 2 VR headsets aren’t the only Meta hardware at the forefront of technological evolution. Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are here for all your hands-free content creation needs. The wearable is the first of its kind to blend fashion and tech   — allowing the user to capture photos and videos hands-free, as well as take calls, send messages on Messenger, and listen to your favorite music or podcast. Over at the Reels Remix Booth, attendees can unleash their creativity by leveraging Instagram’s Remix feature and collaborating with other creators to join in on the Coachella fun! Attendees can also use an array of Instagram AR effects – built with Spark AR – for next level content curation. 

 While the SXSW Creator House was equipped to accommodate festival-goers with a range of interests, you can count on the Coachella crowd to have one thing in common: a love for live music. Visitors can expect a range of genre-spanning artists curated by Rolling Stone tastemakers. Kicking off on day two (April 16th) of the Creator House festivities, the musical lineup will feature garage-pop singer-songwriter, carwash, followed by Grace McKagan, the east LA newcomer serving a nostalgia-laden dose of rock’n’roll. In the late afternoon, melodic house DJ-producer Gryffin takes the stage to tackle a set list replete with fan favorite originals and chart-topping remixes. Rounding out the day’s schedule is the Kendrick Lamar co-signed Californian Blxst, ready to feed R&B fiends with a full repertoire of hits (read: “Chosen” and “Be Alone”). 

 As for the more hands-on — or hands-free — experiences, well, you may just have to be there. Trust us, it will have been worth the wait.