YouTube is bringing Shorts creators to Coachella

Coachella is back, and for the tenth year in a row (minus the two years the festival didn’t run thanks to COVID), YouTube will serve as its livestreaming partner.

Things will look a little different this year. YouTube announced this morning that its 2022 livestream will involve a handful of new features, including a YouTube Shopping hookup that’ll let viewers buy Coachella merch, exclusive YouTube Premium “pre-parties,” and an NFT sweepstakes that pushes YouTube’s TikTok competitor, Shorts.

YouTube’s coverage will air live from its “YouTube Shorts Compound” on Coachella grounds for both weekends of the festival.

Joe Kay, Quenlin Blackwell, Therapy Gecko, and Veronica De La Cruz will host the first weekend, April 14-18, and Kay and De La Cruz will host the second weekend, April 22-24.

The streams will guest-feature numerous YouTube creators, including Benoftheweek, Kaiti Yoo, Kirsten Titus, Larray, and Lauren Giraldo. Additionally, “dozens more creators are also set to document their festival fun on Shorts,” YouTube says, including Alyssa McKay, Gunnar Deatherage, DankScole, Hannah Montoya, Hannah Warling, Milad Mirg, Sydney Morgan, and The Beverly Halls.

In the leadup to Coachella, YouTube is running a sweepstakes for Shorts creators. On offer are two lifetime passes to Coachella (for some reason in the form of NFTs). To enter, people have to upload a video to Shorts answering the question “Who would your dream +1 be if you won Coachella passes for life?”

As for YouTube’s Shopping initiative, it’s partnered with Coachella performers Billie Eilish, Brockhampton, and Flume, along with Coachella itself, to drop exclusive merch during the livestreams. The idea is that viewers will be able to buy items without leaving the stream, YouTube says.

Also on the docket are “pre-parties” from performers Cordae, 88rising, and Banda MS during Weekend 1, and Omar Apollo, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and beabadoobee during Weekend 2. Before their performance, each artist will host a livestream on their YouTube channel that’s only accessible by paying Premium subscribers. Once their turn onstage comes up, the pre-party will automatically redirect viewers to the main Coachella feed to watch their set.

And finally, YouTube’s head of fashion and beauty, Derek Blasberg, will be onsite to film Shorts content and “engage in exclusive, one-on-one interviews with artists and creators to talk Coachella fashion, beauty trends and more,” YouTube says.

Streams kick off April 14 and April 22 at 7 p.m. Eastern.