How Festival Beauty Has Evolved, and Why I Want It to Change
It happens like clockwork every year. My Instagram feed is suddenly filled with pictures of glittery makeup, crop tops, and tinted sunglasses. On top of that, my inbox becomes flooded with subject lines like "MUST-HAVE Beauty Essentials for Coachella," "Hair Hacks for Festival Season," and my personal favorite, "Festival Stories — What Are You Working On?" Just when you think flower crowns and mermaid makeup are going away...well, a quick scroll through your feed will confirm they're still very much around.
Even if you didn't make it to Coachella and have no idea who Migos or BØRNS is, there's a 99.9% chance you know exactly what I mean by "festival beauty": Anything neon, sparkly, or holographic automatically falls under the "festival beauty" umbrella from the month of March (kicking off with South by Southwest) through August with Lollapalooza.
"Festivals and festival beauty have always provided the opportunity for people to express themselves and take a trend to the next level in their own unique way," says Helen Phillips, Sephora Collection’s national makeup artist. "For the past few years, festival beauty has centered around flower crowns, glitter, and extremely elaborate beauty looks. Think Woodstock with some modern, ultraglamorous elements. This year, we’re seeing a move toward more a futuristic aesthetic with the growing popularity of holographic and metallic finishes." No matter the year, it's always proved to be an outlet for beauty escapism.
It's safe to say that music festivals have dramatically evolved since their earlier iterations. "The '60s and '70s were one of the first times people were letting go," Streeters editorial hairstylist Holly Mills told Byrdie. "It was all about freedom. People were very often fully nude." Needless to say, things have changed a lot since then. "Big music festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury are almost like the new red-carpet calendar events," says Alice Leeburn, a beauty expert at market-trend company Stylus.
At its worst, festival beauty is nothing but a caricature of itself; there's nothing practical about rolling up to a party in the desert in heavy layers of foundation and cream shadow that will melt off your face by the time Beyoncé takes the stage. This is not a takedown of glitter makeup and Day-Glo eye shadow pigments, but increasingly, the makeup and hair looks seem specifically designed to fit into an Instagram-shaped mold.
"Social media has played a huge role in the expansion of festival beauty, with Instagram and Pinterest as two of the biggest platforms I see people going to for their beauty inspiration," says Helen. But while Instagram has helped inspire a million flower crowns and mermaid makeup looks, some pros think it will eventually encourage festival beauty to evolve.
"Even if you aren’t going to a festival, there seems to be more freedom, experimentation, and acceptance in terms of people being unabashedly creative in the beauty space," says Milk Makeup studio artist Sara Wren. "Social media has a lot to do with this. I think people will start cultivating new, more unique, and specific-to-you festival looks. While I love festival trends, they all seem very familiar at this point. Individualized beauty at festivals will be bigger than overarching trends that are inescapable."
And some of those "trends" should be discarded; last year, Teen Vogue's fashion features editor, Jessica Andrews, called out the continuous culturally appropriative looks witnessed at the festival. It's an issue that writer Alisha Acquaye also discussed in a personal essay on what music festivals are like for a woman of color, writing, "For me, music festivals are a chance to fully step into and exude the magnificent, marvelous aspects of my identity and culture."
"Being informed is the most important part of coming up with your look," says Sara. "This goes for every day, but especially for music festivals, where cultural appropriation is a problem. It’s crucial to be mindful of what your makeup could represent and how it could be interpreted. It isn’t a look or trend when it possibly represents hundreds of years of a culture or religion. Ask questions and do your research if you’re on the fence."
However, that's not to say that "festival beauty" is never inclusive. In many ways, Coachella and its ilk provide a stage for many people to be unapologetically themselves. Few environments are as open and rule-free as a music festival, which can be a haven for people who don't feel comfortable expressing themselves through makeup in their day-to-day lives.
“Festivals inspire self-expression, so the only limit is your imagination," says Helen. "Thanks to the creativity of so many makeup artists and influencers, festival beauty is sure to continue and evolve into something completely different each year." As Alisha wrote, "Beauty has always been a way to pronounce our identities and reclaim our bodies, but music festivals, especially ones geared towards people of color, are uniquely balls for us to give in to our highest, most stunning selves."
As for me, and what I hope "festival beauty" can look like in years to come? Exactly that — a place to experiment freely (and respectfully) with our beauty looks without becoming carbon copies of each other.
Related:I'm a Woman of Color — Here's What Coachella Is Like for Me
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