Someone built a solar-powered stage outside Coachella

During this year’s Coachella, a fully solar-powered stage ran live performances just outside the festival grounds in Indio, California, with no grid connection, no fuel and no wristband required to enjoy it.

It was built by YouTube creator Isaiah Shepard, who goes by Steezy Kane online, in partnership with portable power brand Jackery, and powered entirely by a single solar generator.

Shepard, who has 3.7 million YouTube subscribers, said he wanted a stage that felt genuinely open, saying it should belong “to everyone there, not just those who could afford a ticket.”

The Jackery Solar Generator Explorer 5000 Plus – a unit with a massive 5,040Wh capacity – handled the power side, running the full DJ rig, speakers and lighting for the duration.

The project landed at an interesting moment for portable solar. Advances in battery technology have made high-capacity units viable at a consumer level in ways that simply weren’t possible a few years ago.

The UK government’s Solar Roadmap sets out plans to legalise plug-in solar panels for houses and flats by this summer. This technology is already mainstream in parts of Europe including Germany, where over a million new units were installed between 2022 and 2025.

Meanwhile, festivals have been among the more visible testing grounds for what the technology can now do at scale. The UK festival industry alone reportedly burns through more than 12 million litres of diesel a year to keep stages running, and while Glastonbury and Mysteryland have made significant strides towards cleaner energy, most large events are nowhere near where they need to be.

Coachella itself has been testing hybrid battery systems since 2018 but has yet to adopt anything resembling a coherent public sustainability strategy – making a solar-powered stage in its car park a more pointed demonstration than it might first appear…