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Expectations for Coachella were high this year. Frank Ocean was headlining and he hadn’t been seen on stage since 2019. Many Ocean fans were left disappointed by his performance, as they longed for more than his 90-minute set provided.

The singer performed his first set after arriving an hour late and abruptly ended as the midnight curfew for the concer arrivedt. Many of his tracks were pre-recorded and he lip-synced to the lyrics. 

The original concept was canceled mere hours before the performance, which involved about 120 ice skaters skating around Frank Ocean. Many of these skaters were Olympic champions who had prepared for weeks prior. They felt let down that they’d been cut from the set with such short notice. 

During “Empty Netter’s” podcast, Dan Powers said that there wasn’t an issue with the ice rink, but that Ocean decided on a whim to cut it altogether. 

“[Ocean] just straight-up was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m not doing this anymore’,” said Powers. ‘“And [to] these 120 people [he] had bused out here, he was just like, ‘You guys aren’t doing shit now,’ so it was just like a wild flip.”

It was reported by The Guardian that organizers were trying to get rid of the ice rink before his set without anyone noticing. 

During the performance, a few hit songs were left out and he stood with his back to the audience for a lot of the time in the corner, letting the DJ take over. 

Ocean later suffered from a leg fracture and sprain, which some believe to be the reason he didn’t stick to the ice rink routine; it wasn’t safe for him to be on ice. This also allegedly caused him to cancel the second set. 

Karon Simmons, a student at PCC, weighed in with their opinion, which they stated was split into two viewpoints, beginning with the audience’s point of view.

“I have two views on it, here’s the audience point of view…For most of the performance, he was just head bobbing and dancing in the corner and everyone was like, ‘What’s going on?’,” Simmons said. 

Simmons said that their second point of view was approaching the performance from an artist’s perspective.

“At the same time, from like an artist’s point of view, he was just over all those songs to begin with and I think he’s ready to move on,” said Simmons. “I understand his energy wasn’t there like it should’ve been. Justin Bieber posted on Instagram and was like ‘Frank, that was the best performance ever, I feel so inspired.’ I guess if an artist could see it, it must’ve made sense somehow. I love Frank no matter what, I just wish there was a little more.” 

There was a surprising number of students who hadn’t seen or heard much about the performance. A large portion of the student population seemed to be disengaged from Coachella, due to finals being right around the corner. 

Marissa Garcia was one of these students; however, she still thought there was a disconnect between viewing it at home, versus viewing it live, at Coachella. 

“I feel like it was different watching from home than being there, I feel like it’s a different vibe,” said Garcia. “I heard that people camped out since the morning and missed the whole of Coachella just for his set. I can’t even imagine how upset they must have been.” 

Jasmine Oros mentioned how Frank Ocean’s brother’s passing may have impacted him during his performance and how she couldn’t really blame him. 

“I can’t fully blame him either as an artist either because he’s still a person, emotion runs wild,” Oros said. “I also heard that he would often go to Coachella with his brother and that was a bonding experience for them so I can’t even imagine being there without him.” 

Coachella weekend two left many Frank Ocean fans even more let down, as there wouldn’t be a follow up to his first lackluster performance. Although many were disappointed, there was also empathy found for Ocean’s brother’s passing, leaving fans stuck between a place of dismay and understanding. 

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