Green Day, Blonde Redhead, Kneecap and Bernie Sanders show solidarity with Palestine at Coachella 2025

The tragedy of Palestine echoed across the stages of the major music festival

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The plight of Palestinians has taken centre stage during the both weekend of the Coachella music festival in California.

On Saturday, American band Blonde Redhead brought a Palestinian flag onto the stage during their performance, accompanied by audio clips of from Mahmoud Khalil's interviews and speeches. Another member of the band held up a poster that read "free them all", which featured a photo of Khalil along with others held in detention.

After initially criticising festival organisers for removing their pro-Palestinian message from the YouTube livestream during the event's first weekend, Irish band Kneecap were even more pointed during their second performance. Performing on Friday, the hip-hop trio delivered a particularly charged set, describing the killing of Palestinians in the conflict as “genocide".

"The Palestinians have nowhere to go. It's their home, and they're bombing it from the sky. If you're not calling it a genocide, what are you calling it?" said Kneecap rapper Moglai Bap, who was wearing a keffiyeh. The musician went on to lead the audience in a "free, free Palestine" chant.

On April 12, US Senator Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance to introduce folk singer Clairo and her band. Sanders, a longstanding critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians, condemned the killing of Palestinian women and children in the ongoing conflict. According to reported figures, more than 50,900 have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war.

“I'm here to introduce Clairo not just because they’re a great band,” Sanders said in his address. “I'm here because Clairo has used her prominence to fight for women’s rights and to help end the terrible, brutal war in Gaza, where thousands of women and children are being killed.”

Green Day also showed they haven’t lost their political edge, altering part of the lyrics of their song, Jesus of Suburbia, in a show of support for Palestine. Headlining the main stage on April 13, the American punk band delivered an explosive set. During the closing passage of the 2004 track, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong sang: “Running away from pain, like the kids from Palestine / Tales from another broken home,” replacing the original line: “Running away from pain when you’ve been victimised.”

Coachella closes second weekend of concerts on Sunday.The line-up includes Lady Gaga and Post Malone, as well as a number of Arab artists. These include Egyptian actor-turned-pop star Mohamed Ramadan, Moroccan DJ Ahmed Spins and Saudi-Bahraini DJ Nooriyah.