Lifestyle influencer Jacqlyn Burnett was more excited this year to attend the country music festival Stagecoach for the first time than to go to Coachella.
“Over the past year or so, country culture has been gradually instilled into our everyday lives,” she said. “I’m excited for a little country weekend.”
Stagecoach, the annual country music festival held this past weekend in Southern California, is rivaling the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as the new favorite among brands and social-media influencers.
From the growing interest in country music to fashion, influencers and brands flocked to Stagecoach this year. Beauty brands Tarte Cosmetics and E.l.f. Beauty attended the festival, as did the luggage brand Béis. Béis invited influencers and hosted an immersive Western-themed gas station to showcase products and serve drinks.
Dominick Paielli, cofounder of the influencer-management firm The Clementine Group, said 2024’s Stagecoach drew the most influencer interest he’s seen in the event yet.
“That’s probably because of growing interest in country music in general,” Paielli said. “The hype around that music has definitely translated down to the influencer and brand side of things.”
Some influencers, including Paige Lorenze, Maggie and Emma Macdonald, Estelle Lebourgeois, Chloe Trujillo, and Alyssa Lynch, even skipped Coachella for Stagecoach. Lynch attended the festival with the vacation home company AvantStay.
Business of Fashion’s beauty correspondent Liz Flora also wrote that retailer Revolve shortened its annual Coachella activation and reduced its guest count. Instead, it stayed in the valley longer by hosting a similar-sized event the following weekend at Stagecoach.
The three-day festival, which took place from April 26 to 28, is the country music version of Coachella and is held on the same grounds the weekend after. Both events are organized by the promoter Goldenvoice. Stagecoach was first introduced in 2007.
This is not to say that Coachella has been replaced.
Coachella is still very much a fixture in influencer culture, and this year’s event featured multiple branded influencer houses, like beverage company Poppi’s influencer house, dubbed “Coachearlea,” for Alix Earle and her friends.
“Coachella still is an unrivaled event,” Paielli said. “But I think Stagecoach is building toward that.”
Even though Coachella likely isn’t going anywhere, the rise in popularity for Stagecoach shows a wider trend around country music and Western fashion and a place for brands to woo influencers and make a statement outside Coachella’s busy atmosphere.
“I’ve never seen more brand activations and influencer attendance, and I’ve been going since 2017,” said Ali Grant, partner and CMO at the influencer-management firm The Digital Dept. Her client attended Stagecoach this year with Tarte Cosmetics.
Béis
Brands get in on Stagecoach
Mackenzie Gaston, founder of 1AM Management, hosted 20 influencer clients in a house at Stagecoach. Gaston’s firm manages several Western-focused lifestyle influencers, including Brynn Wade and Luke Scornavacco, who created content for brand partners at the festival.
“Although there weren’t as many brand activations at Stagecoach as there were at Coachella, I think there was a lot more opportunity at Stagecoach for brands because it was easier to stand out,” said Paielli at The Clementine Group. “At Coachella, there are a lot of bigger names that take up the majority of the presence there, and it can be hard to stand out.”
Béis, the luggage brand, invited influencers to Stagecoach instead of Coachella, offering themed activities and special access to the festival.
Liz Money, senior vice president of brand and creative at Béis, told BI over email that the brand has hosted events at Revolve Fest, an invite-only influencer event during Coachella, in previous years — but this year, Stagecoach was more invested in having experiential brand activations.
“Country music is having a moment,” Money said. “This year’s activation at Stagecoach also included us hosting our own influencer house, where we were able to introduce a few ladies to some of our favorite country music artists.”
