Coachella partners with Google DeepMind to build AI-powered 3D performance archives

Key highlights

• Coachella and Google DeepMind built three AI prototypes at the 2026 festival, including a system that rebuilds live performances as navigable 3D environments.
• The project used DeepMind’s Project Genie and Unreal Engine to capture a Quasar stage set, producing what the festival calls “living archives.”
• No public rollout date exists — Coachella is reviewing 2026 results before deciding what moves forward.

Coachella rebuilt a live set as a 3D environment fans can walk through

Coachella partnered with Google DeepMind to build and test three AI tools at its 2026 festival. The headline project: a system that captures a live performance — lighting, audio, visuals, crowd movement — and rebuilds it as a navigable 3D space using DeepMind Project Genie and Unreal Engine.

During opening weekend, the team ran a full capture at the Quasar stage. The result is what Coachella calls a “living archive” — a concert fans can replay from any angle, long after the night ended.

Kevin McMahon, Coachella’s innovation partnerships lead, explained the choice of DeepMind: “We live in a really visual world, and they have the best visual models.” Coachella already had a working relationship with Google through its Coachella DeepMind announcement and YouTube livestreams.

Two more prototypes: stage design and a fan game

The second tool lets performers upload visuals or prompts to preview how a show looks across Coachella’s stages. It’s aimed at smaller acts who don’t have the production teams to plan a show at that scale. The third is a mobile game, Coachella vs. The Game, where fans explore digital worlds based on festival artists — a 3D performance capture concept extended into pre-festival engagement.

All three remain internal proofs of concept. This fits the broader pattern of AI live DJ performance and best AI music video generators tools where AI augments the live and visual experience without replacing it. The question — explored in the will AI replace musicians debate — is whether digital archives stay in that augmentation lane as the technology matures.

“It’s difficult right now to put a firm timeline on it,” said Cenicola. No public rollout date has been set. Coachella’s AI at China Now Music Festival precedent shows audience appetite for AI-enhanced live experiences is real. Whether DeepMind’s 3D archives become a standard festival feature or stay as a one-off experiment depends on what the 2026 data shows.