The loud bass echoes through the stage as electro-pop artist Charli XCX brings out various artists such as Billie Eilish and Troye Sivan during her Coachella performance. While festival-goers cheer on Clairo as the next performer, someone else grabs the mic.
Coachella, a music festival with an average of 125,000 in attendance, brings together celebrities, online personalities and normal people to watch a variety of artists perform.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance at Coachella before Clairo’s performance Saturday night. He spoke for a total of four minutes and 14 seconds, highlighting climate change issues, economic inequalities, universal healthcare and women’s rights.
Before Coachella, Sen. Sanders was in downtown Los Angeles speaking at an evening rally as part of a joint tour, Fighting Oligarchy Tour, with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both Congress members have spoken at rallies in Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, California and most recently Montana with the same topics in mind: bringing awareness to the problems with the current administration and encouraging action.
Sanders, as an 83-year-old congressman, could have been in his home that night; he could have chosen to rest after the rally in Los Angeles, but instead, he decided to take his mission a step further and speak directly to the youth at one of the largest stages available. In doing this, Sanders shows a deep understanding that the younger generations will incite change. He spoke with clarity and elegance, and he delivered a simple yet important instruction: participate.
Sen. Sanders began his Coachella speech by addressing the young concert-goers and influencers in the crowd. He urged them to participate and be aware of the current political climate, express their political beliefs, participate in both local and federal government, and most importantly, pressure the politicians who represent them to do better. After he was done, he presented Clairo and venerated the artist for using her platform to speak about women’s rights and the war in Gaza.
Sanders is talking to us. We can cheer as loud as we want, we can agree with everything that is said, but change is not brought simply by agreement but by participation, and there are many ways to do so. For influencers, using their platform to promote change is the most efficient way to bring awareness, but for the common people, breaking past ignorance is the first big step to take.
Politics are overwhelming and often discourage the younger generation with headlines showing doom and gloom of American politics, but it does not be that way. As a collective, we can change headlines by utilizing the rights that we were given: freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
But this will take time. The political climate won’t change instantly; it may even take years before a major change appears, but nothing will happen if there is no one to help bring that change. Sen. Sanders did not attend Coachella just to repeat the same speech he has given over the past two months in his rallies, he came to Coachella to encourage the youth—us—to utilize our voices, to utilize our right to participate in the government and to break away from the ignorance we are so quick to have.
