In a weekend full of surprise guests and overproduced spectacles, it was Yo Gabba Gabba! who delivered the most unhinged and somehow tightest set of Coachella 2025.
The Mojave tent was packed out Saturday (April 12) as the kids’ TV icons turned what could’ve been a throwaway nostalgia slot into a full-blown fever dream. On paper, it sounded like a parody: DJ Lance Rock leading a puppet dance party featuring Flavor Flav, Thundercat, Weird Al Yankovic and Portugal. The Man. In practice though, it worked. Against all odds, it worked.
The show moved like it had no brakes. ‘Party in My Tummy’ dropped like a bass-heavy club banger. Thundercat jammed with a cartoon cat in a segment called ‘The Orange Cat’s Special Time Outdoors’. Weird Al covered ‘Rainbow Connection’ with Paul Williams like it was the Grammys, while Flavor Flav just… did Flavor Flav things. Quite literally every five minutes, something happened that made you question if you were still at Coachella or trapped in some hyper-colour rave daycare.
Yo Gabba Gabba! haven’t played a solo set at the festival since 2010. According to creators Christian Jacobs and Scott Schultz, they were invited back after fans went wild for the characters just walking around last year. This time, the organisers handed them a tent and said: go nuts.
And they did.
There was zero irony, zero self-awareness, and a full commitment to the bit. No half-arsed cameos or mailing-it-in guest spots. Everyone on stage looked like they were having more fun than the crowd. Which is saying something, because that crowd looked to be truly losing it.
Yo Gabba Gabba! didn’t try to be cool. They didn’t need to. They just leaned in and let it get weird. It was pure chaos. Loud, surreal, strangely cohesive chaos. It shouldn’t have gone this hard—but it absolutely did. Perhaps an appearance from the Wiggles next year? I’m just saying.
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