The 10 Best Coachella Performances Of All-Time

Kanye West – 2011

Kanye West is a musician whose live performances aren’t exactly best made for a festival atmosphere. His shows are best done when he’s the focal point of it all – when he has all the time in the world to do whatever he wants to do, preferably in a huge arena setting. But, when he took the stage at Coachella in 2011, you would have thought that it was really Kanye’s festival to begin with.

Fresh off the release of his critically acclaimed record, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he delivered plenty of material from the record and so much more. He even dubbed the performance as “the most important show” since his mother passed away in 2007. Naturally, he included his track “Hey Mama” into the set, too, and well, cue the waterworks.

Outkast – 2014

One of the best parts about Coachella is that it’s the absolute perfect time to unleash all the reunions at once. With a festival including so many darn people in attendance, why not decide to get the band back together for a performance for old times’ sake?

Hip-hop group Outkast shared similar sentiments when they decided to rock things at the festival in 2014. It was the first time in nearly a decade that the group had hit the stage together, so you could probably expect that things were a little bit awkward for one of the most hyped reunions in a while.

It didn’t take long for them to get back into the swing of things, though, and it made you wonder why they went away for so long in the first place. Sure, maybe most of the crowd was dying to only hear “Hey Ya!” – and they got their wish – but it doesn’t change the fact that Outkast still ended up delivering a very special performance.