Sabrina Carpenter’s 2026 Coachella performance transformed the main stage into a fully realized conceptual world known as “Sabrinawood,” a stage design rooted in cinematic storytelling and Old Hollywood glamour.
// 2026
// Festival
// California, USA
Rather than functioning as a simple backdrop, the set operated as an immersive environment that blended theatre, film, and pop spectacle into a cohesive visual narrative. Instead of a static design, we designed the environment to constantly unfold and reform, with rotating and shifting set pieces and visual transitions suggesting a filmic structure.
Through a sequence of different locations, tiered platforms, staircases, and character-filled vignettes the modular scenic elements allowed each environment to emerge distinctly while remaining part of a holistic visual language that is uniquely Sabrina.
Starting the show in a drive in Movie theatre complete with vintage cars, the show transitions down the the walk of Fame into the Hollywood hills. The stage splits open to reveal intimate scenes inside the sculpture including, audition rooms, a recording studio, and dive bar.
The stage transforms and reconfigures into a dance rehearsal room, a grand staircase, and a movie premier complete with neon signs. Other moments of the show include the use of treadmills on the centre stage, a Park bench with Street light for an intimate moment for Don’t Smile and concluding the show with the spectacle of the final car sequence complete with water jets and a raising car seat that is like a fountain. In the final moments of the show, one of the cars drives off down the side of the stage through the audience.
At its core, the design drew heavily from mid-20th-century Hollywood iconography. A large-scale Hollywood Hills–style backdrop and a prominent illuminated “Sabrinawood” sign established the fictional setting.
The production leaned into maximalism, with multiple elaborate set pieces and shifting visual environments that supported different segments of the show.
Visually, the design embraced a nostalgic yet stylised aesthetic uniquely Sabrina, referencing classic musicals and vintage studio-era spectacle. Critics have noted its theatrical ambition and dense layering of props, choreography, and costume changes, all integrated into the physical stage environment. This design approach ensured that lighting, staging, and fashion worked together to maintain the illusion of a “movie world” unfolding in real time. This project was hugely ambitious and full of details that took an army of passionate people to help bring to life.
Credits
Starring & Directed by Sabrina Carpenter Management and Producer Volara Management Creative Direction Brett Alan Nelson, Sarah Carpenter Stage & Set design STUFISH Sabrina Stylist Jared Ellner Costume Design Lindsey Hartman Creative Producer Dani Edgren Music Direction Kris Pooley Choreographer Jasmine ‘JB’ Badie Lighting Design Cory FitzGerald & Jason Baeri Video Direction Micah Bickham, Linuss Andgren, Charles Woods Screen Content Blink Disguise Programmer/Operator Felix Biello Production Manager Zach Snyder Tour Manager David Klein Road Manager Tim Puder Production Coordinator Immy Ray Technical Director Clear All Visuals SFX Strictly Fx Lighting Solotech Video Fuse Cameras Vis-à-vis Fabricators – Show FX, Allaccess Staging, Tait Towers
