Sabrina Carpenter - Lollapalooza 2026
Sabrina Carpenter's 2026 Coachella headline set was almost ridiculously ambitious. Rather than simply bringing her touring show to the desert, she turned the Coachella stage into “Sabrinawood,” building the entire performance around an exaggerated Hollywood concept complete with elaborate sets, costume changes, celebrity cameos, prerecorded movie-style segments, dancers, and enough theatrical nonsense to make the whole thing feel like a giant pop spectacle.
The show opened with a filmed sequence featuring Sam Elliott before Carpenter appeared onstage for “House Tour,” which incorporated elements of the Mary Jane Girls' “In My House.” From there came “Taste,” “Busy Woman,” and “Manchild,” with Carpenter constantly moving through different pieces of the production. The Hollywood theme was impossible to miss, with a Hollywood Hills backdrop, a Walk of Fame-style runway, and the giant “SABRINAWOOD” sign.
What makes the performance work is that Carpenter clearly understands that a Coachella headliner needs to provide a show, not simply a collection of songs. There are elaborate transitions, visual gags, choreography, costume changes, and deliberately ridiculous moments everywhere. “Please Please Please” was performed inside a mock recording-studio booth, while “My Man on Willpower” had Carpenter walking backward and forward on a treadmill in heels.
The celebrity appearances added another layer of unpredictability. The first weekend included appearances and prerecorded contributions from people including Sam Elliott, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, and Corey Fogelmanis. The second weekend went even further, bringing Madonna onto the stage for a mini-set of Madonna songs before Carpenter returned to her own material.
The first weekend's setlist was particularly strong because it balanced the biggest hits with newer material. “When Did You Get Hot?” received its live debut, while “We Almost Broke Up Again Last Night” was also performed live for the first time. The set moved through “Nobody's Son,” “because i liked a boy,” “Go Go Juice,” “Such a Funny Way,” “Sugar Talking,” and “Don't Smile” before reaching the massive closing run of “Feather,” “Bed Chem,” “Juno,” “Espresso,” “Goodbye,” and “Tears.”
And that's really the key to Carpenter's Coachella performance: she committed completely to the bit. Even when the production became intentionally over-the-top, there was enough humor and personality to keep it from feeling like a generic pop-star spectacle. One review found some of the interludes clunky, while another criticized the performance as overly stiff and theatrical, but even those reactions underline just how much Carpenter was attempting rather than simply standing onstage and running through the hits.
The 90-minute-plus performance ultimately felt like a legitimate headlining production rather than a festival set stretched to headline length. Carpenter had the songs, the personality, the choreography, the visual spectacle, and enough surprises to make the whole thing feel like an event. Whether every joke or transition worked is debatable, but there was never much question that she had put considerably more thought into the performance than simply showing up with a microphone and a backing band.