An interview with DoLab founder Jesse Flemming on how Billie Eilish's surprise set at their stage during weekend one of Coachella 2024 came together.
The DoLab backstage area at Coachella is a scene of chaos. It’s 6:30 p.m. on April 13, and the usually spacious and chill hangout zone for industry people and artists is shoulder-to-shoulder with bodies. Benny Blanco rushes past me with a concerned look on his face, then walks by moments later with two neon-green wristbands in his hands. Someone carrying multiple large metal trays filled with Mexican food speed-walks to the cordoned-off staff-only area.
Approximately 30 minutes prior, Coachella organizers had announced that Billie Eilish would be taking the stage at the festival’s sort-of-underground electronic tent DoLab for a last-minute DJ set. Indeed,, Eilish’s impromptu appearance was the most unexpected. As the flood of fan-recorded footage later showed, the pop star didn’t actually end up DJing, but she used the time toIt turns out the story of how this strange collision of worlds came together was equally as spontaneous.
Flemming says the “very big, coordinated effort by a lot of people” was centered around creating buzz for Eilish’s new album, that all went down on a 26-person call with her record label, management, and social-media team. Her earlier time slot — she went on at 7:35 p.m. — was also strategic: “Coachella didn't want her to go up against No Doubt, or Tyler, the Creator... Because it's Billie Eilish.”In the end, Flemming estimates that up to 25,000 people gathered in their corner to catch the show, setting an attendance record for the stage.
In the wake of these major pop-star moments, some DoLab purists have expressed frustration about the future of the stage, to which Flemming shrugs in response. He and his brothers Josh and Dede — who founded the stage in 2004 and use it to preview their own summer electronic festival— say they’re still committed to keeping an underground tilt as part of its mission. But, they’re also ready for a bigger spotlight. “Every big band was small at some point,” he says.
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