But this year’s edition of Coachella isn’t just for Beliebers. Among the 125,000 attendees who descend upon the desert each weekend are flocks of influencers sent by brands like Poppi, Gap, and Guess for an extravagant experience sure to leave their millions of followers envious while they watch on their phones from afar. Coachella has been deemed the “Influencer Olympics,” and attending the festival with a brand is still considered the ultimate status symbol on the internet, with invitations getting more and more cutthroat and the trips becoming increasingly over-the-top with each passing year. But recently it’s turned the grounds into a content farm, ultimately diminishing the festival’s cool factor. Try to make your way from one stage to another and you’re bombarded with brand activations, photo opportunities, and seemingly endless lines to purchase branded merchandise. If you didn’t get a photo in front of the Ferris wheel, were you even there? And it’s not just limited to the music festival itself anymore: An entire village pops up in the surrounding area, with influencers making the trek to events like Revolve Fest, Camp Poosh, and the 818 Outpost, gathering hoards of free products and capturing content along the way. I myself braved the heat to attend Hailey Bieber’s Rhode event, and as I attempted to venture back to the Coachella grounds in time to see Addison Rae, I witnessed groups of influencers battle it out for an Uber to the next event—completely deprioritizing the music, in a survival-of-the-fittest situation, piling into black cars like they were life boats.

Of course, fashion is almost as synonymous with Coachella as the music is nowadays. But that’s also changed over the years, with It girls like Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber, who made elaborate bohemian outfits and flower crowns Pinterest-famous, opting for a more casual, effortless approach. They’ve traded in fringe and glitter for jeans and a T-shirt. Yet, as their desert style evolves, the throwback posts they share on Instagram still inspire the average festivalgoer to arrive in cosplay for a bygone era.

Find your way back to the festival grounds at the Empire Polo Club, which spans hundreds of acres and features 160 acts performing throughout the weekend, and it’s easy to see why some attendees are willing to camp out, foregoing air conditioning and a real shower for 72 hours: for the experience. The festival’s curation, which gave me the option to see Katseye, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, and Young Thug all in the same weekend, is unlike any other offering in the festival landscape today. The best part about it is that the acts themselves seem genuinely excited to be there, making the festival a dream come true for artists and attendees alike. If you’re one of the lucky ones to obtain a coveted artist pass, you’ll see the inner workings of the festival—an impressive well-oiled machine, complete with decked-out golf carts whizzing through sandy paths carrying pop stars like precious cargo with entourages trailing behind. For a festival that can feel sanctioned into an elitist hierarchy, there’s a great equalizer in everyone having to endure the heat and dust together, from general admission to the artist’s compound: Even the stars have to use mobile bathrooms.

It’s true that it’s a very different festival than it was 25 years ago. The inaugural festival hosted Beck, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool. Following the disastrous events of Woodstock ’99, it was a risk, and the first few years were a loss. Still, slowly but surely, Coachella gained both popularity and credibility, becoming a mainstay of alternative music. Then, in 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline the festival and changed the game forever. In a historic performance, immortalized in the Netflix documentary Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, she paid stunning homage to HBCU traditions in a set that is widely—and correctly—viewed as one of the greatest performances of all time.