What Travis Scott at Coachella Taught Me About Working Fast Under Pressure

Two stages. A pool in the middle of the crowd, built from automated concentric rings, hidden until showtime (with water everywhere - which made the changeover a bit delicate). A multilevel mainstage set, holding a 60-piece marching band. And just a 45-minute window to go from nothing to downbeat for the biggest headline set of Coachella weekend.

Here’s what a time crunch like that actually proves: it doesn’t just test your speed - It exposes every assumption you made in prep.

Because when the clock starts, there’s little time to solve problems. Every potential failure has to be anticipated before the window opens. Every scenario was rehearsed. Every member of the crew knew exactly what they’re responsible for - and in what order.

The changeover itself went perfectly because we were ready.

Being ready is the job. The 45 minutes is proof we did it right.

Credit and gratitude to Dan Norman for bringing me onto this one as the Lighting FOH Engineer, and to the Fuse Technical Group team for making an impossible setup work.