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Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans flock to the world’s most famous music festivals: Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Ultra. While these festivals are primarily known for their top-tier musical lineups, what often goes underappreciated is the breathtaking artistry that transforms these events into immersive, multisensory environments. The large-scale art installations at these festivals do more than just decorate; they shape the atmosphere, create landmarks, spark joy, and become essential parts of the experience. Let’s take a closer look at how these three powerhouse festivals integrated art into their 2025 editions.
Photo of Coachella DJ Set by Arthur Edelmans
Coachella: Sculpture, Movement, and the Mirage of Light
Held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a two-weekend celebration of sound, creativity, and desert spectacle. Beyond its musical prestige, Coachella has become a global beacon for monumental public art. As the festival’s curators describe it, “Newly commissioned, large-scale art installations and returning favorites offer fans art as landmark, public space, and icon — to be viewed from perspectives as diverse and dynamic as Coachella’s lineup of performers.”
In 2025, new featured artists created works that were interactive, ephemeral, and visually transformative.
Stephanie Lin’s "Taffy" combined architectural thinking with sculptural form. Lin, who leads the studio Present Forms and serves as Dean of the School of Architecture, crafted seven towering mesh cylinders, each between 25 and 50 feet tall. These vibrant towers, inspired by midcentury desert modernism, rippled in the wind to produce hypnotic moiré patterns. Below, open-circle plywood benches offered shade and a pause. "Taffy" was a study in impermanence, a mirage-like bloom that reflected Coachella’s dreamlike quality.
Uchronia’s "Le Grand Bouquet", by French designer Julien Sebban, was a surreal garden of 19 glowing inflatable flowers. Evoking the aesthetics of the 1960s and '70s, these massive blooms stretched skyward, creating pockets of shade and joy. Six smaller satellite bouquets echoed the central theme, establishing a colorful gathering space grounded in nostalgia and whimsy.
Isabel + Helen’s "Take Flight", the duo’s largest project to date, drew inspiration from 19th-century flying machines. The 60-foot-tall installation featured wind-powered turbines and kinetic components, including turbine-outfitted wearable pieces and mobile carts. By day, the structure was quietly reflective; by night, it illuminated the grounds, embodying the grace of wind and human invention.
Returning favorites further anchored the festival’s artistic identity:
Balloon Chain, created by Robert Bose, was a kinetic sky sculpture made of helium balloons and handmade LED lights. Suspended on a strong fishing line, this floating chain adapted to the wind and lit up the night. As much a performance as a sculpture, Balloon Chain was held by crew members, known as “balloonatics,” and engaged with the crowd through whimsy and physical presence.
Do LaB, founded by the Flemming brothers in Los Angeles, returned with their signature misting domes and immersive, interactive stage. Their design-forward structures and taste-making music curation transform their area into one of the most celebrated dance floors at the festival.
Photo of Louis Futon on DoLaB Stage by Eric Ward
Don Kennell and Lisa Adler of DKLA Design brought their nature-inspired sculptures, often animal forms welded from steel, that invite reflection and community. Their work bridges the connection between public space and environmental consciousness.
Raices Cultura, a nonprofit rooted in community empowerment and cultural expression, continued its tradition of showcasing youth-led public art from the Coachella Valley, bringing local voices to the forefront of global celebration.
Finally, SPECTRA by NEWSUBSTANCE, now a Coachella icon, towered once again above the field. This spiraling rainbow pavilion blends architecture with light, taking visitors on a vertical journey of color and perspective. By day or night, its refracted hues echo the Valley’s sunrises and sunsets, offering breathtaking views from within and above.
Photo of Lollapalooza stage by Luis Villasmil
Lollapalooza: Industrial Elegance and Urban Storytelling
Set in Grant Park in Chicago and replicated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lollapalooza is a single-weekend juggernaut known for fusing music, urban culture, and social commentary. In 2023, the standout installation in Buenos Aires returned in 2025 with widespread acclaim: "Capot" by Estudio Normal.
"Capot," meaning “car hood” in Spanish, is a 32-foot-tall sculpture that resembles a massive pine cone. In reality, it’s constructed from 95 salvaged Volkswagen Golf hoods. By day, its scalloped white-and-blue surfaces reflect sunlight, and by night, the structure glows in brilliant ultramarine and teal. The piece doubles as a social sculpture; festivalgoers can sit beneath or upon it, engaging with its recycled surfaces.
This immersive artwork launched Estudio Normal’s Autopartes series, a formal research initiative exploring Argentina’s industrial materials as raw inputs for environmental storytelling. Designed with sustainability in mind, many components of Capot were returned to the manufacturing supply chain after the festival, a gesture toward circular design in contemporary art.
Photo of Ultra Music Festival stage by Perry Avgerinos
Ultra: Street Art Meets Spectacle in Miami
In downtown Miami, Ultra Music Festival pulses with energy, neon, and bass. Centered on electronic dance music, Ultra’s art program channels the vitality of street art and the spectacle of motion.
Daniel Popper’s "Aeonium" reimagined the succulent plant as a monumental sculpture. Thick, layered spirals in earthy hues mirrored the natural resilience of the desert bloom. With projection mapping that animated its surfaces after dark, Aeonium became a glowing tribute to the bond between form, emotion, and evolution.
Caratoes, the Belgian-Hong Kong graffiti artist, created a vivid mural environment. Known for blending biochemistry, mythology, and movement, her art evokes narrative portals that resonate emotionally and visually. Her mural at Ultra brought dreamlike characters to life with raw honesty and complex layers.
Dasic Fernández, whose work spans Chile to New York City, brought a radiant spectrum of color to the festival’s structures. His drips, gradients, and 3D visual illusions honored Latin American resistance culture and site-specific activism. Dasic’s murals transform ordinary walls into explosive experiences.
Pez, the legendary Barcelona graffiti artist known for his "Happy Style," returned for his fourth appearance at Ultra Music Festival. Combining augmented reality and video mapping, his grinning fish characters and playful symbols sparked laughter and movement throughout the crowd.
Other notable contributors included:
- ChicaDania, whose murals portray her children and female friendships with layered meaning and empathy.
- Golden, Wynwood’s Venezuelan-born muralist, is known for his bold characters and community art programs.
- Lambo, whose "Lamblines" optical illusions mesmerize with geometric rhythm.
- Maxi Bagnasco, who brought larger-than-life portraits of cultural icons like Maradona and Messi.
- Rage Johnson, a graffiti pioneer from Miami’s early hip-hop scene, whose work explores rebellion and community uplift.
- Sean Was Here, blending code and motion graphics into art installations.
- The London Police, whose globally recognized “LADS” characters combine comic charm with architectural detail.
- Saulo Metria, whose mandala-style murals use geometry as ritual, harmonizing chaos and order.
Beyond the Music
From Coachella’s kinetic sculptures to Lollapalooza’s reclaimed industrial forms and Ultra’s street art-infused installations, these festivals are not just concerts; they are cultural events elevated by visual art. The installations become landmarks, sanctuaries, and storytelling devices that tie entire experiences together.
As audiences continue to crave more profound and interactive experiences, the role of public art at music festivals will only continue to grow. These artworks serve as monuments not only to creativity but to community, sustainability, and collective memory. Whether it’s a balloon chain swaying in the wind or a glowing succulent under Miami’s skyline, festival art is a celebration of imagination, filling the space between sound and soul.
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