Many global artists have become fixtures at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Over the years, their stages have taken the shape of grand productions made whole by exciting guest performers, striking visuals, and the audience’s satisfaction from hearing their favorite hits in the flesh. 

But for first-time performers like the members of P-pop girl group BINI, Coachella was a rare opportunity to introduce their music to new listeners, and perhaps most importantly, to make every Filipino back home proud. 

It was a huge responsibility BINI and the teams working behind the scenes had to bear. Every single detail of their set, then — from the music arrangement down to the lights and everything you see on screen — had to be well-thought out. 

It’s a fact that See You Later can easily attest to. The Los Angeles-based creative design studio helped BINI bring their visions to life in Coachella’s Mojave tent, and it was an experience that stood out to them for the sheer cultural weight the homegrown music act’s performance held. 

Introducing the nation’s girl group to the world

Rewatch BINI’s Coachella debut and you’ll notice that the vivid visuals on the large LED screen move in harmony with the girls’ every note and movement. In “Pantropiko,” for instance, elements in hues of red and orange sway in the background as the song progresses to depict a hot summer day in the Philippines’ islands, until even more pops of color appear to the beat of the dance break. 

Play Video

Their iconic blooming sampaguita logo would even make occasional appearances here and there, and all these elements — coupled with the addition of ethnic instruments in the music’s arrangement — point to the strong Filipino identity BINI has already established even before coming into the festival. This is what See You Later built on in curating the visuals for the girl group’s set. 

The creative studio’s CEO and co-founder, TJ Hoover, shared that their team started by immersing themselves in BINI’s world; they listened to their discography, sought to understand the lyrics and the emotions behind them, studied their visual language, and looked closer at their evolution and trajectory as a group.  

“That’s really how the direction took shape,” Hoover explained. “It wasn’t about forcing an idea onto them, it was about entering the BINI universe fully enough to build something that felt true to them, but also expansive enough to introduce them to new audiences on a global stage.”

Clarity, however, had also become a large point of consideration in the set’s creative direction. 

Similar to the arrangers who worked on the music accompaniment in BINI’s Coachella performances, See You Later had come into the project knowing that their goal was to bring the P-pop act closer to a crowd that was likely witnessing them in action for the first time. With that, there was less of what only BLOOMs would know, and more of what would make it easy for new audiences to recall BINI the minute they step off the platform.

“When you’re introducing an artist on a stage like that, you don’t want to overcomplicate the read. You want people to understand who they are quickly, feel the energy immediately, and stay with the performance as it builds,” Hoover said.

Even the seemingly trivial decision to flash each member’s name on the screen towards the beginning of their Weekend 2 stage had gone a long way. Right off the bat, the crowd would already be able to tell who was who as their performance progressed. 

Traces of Filipino identity

It was in the subtle details that you could really feel the Pinoy pride, though. In “Blush,” an innocent summer crush anthem, BINI dances in sync against the backdrop of waves calmly moving at a beach. It’s a nod to the existing visuals from the song’s official music video, but any Filipino watching would instantly be reminded of the imagery that loops during a karaoke number. 

Play Video

Whether or not that was the exact intention, it made it seem that just for a moment, BINI’s members were the living versions of the animations we’d usually only see on the videoke machine — a staple in any Filipino gathering. 

“We knew the set had to do a few things at once: introduce BINI clearly to people seeing them for the first time, give their existing audience something that felt true to them, and make room for identity and culture to come through in a way that felt earned,” Hoover told Rappler. “That’s why we built it as a progression. It starts with clarity and impact, then opens into personality and identity, and ultimately resolves into something more rooted and immersive. By the time you reach the end, it feels like you’ve gone somewhere with the artists, not just watched them perform a series of songs.” 

This meant that BINI’s Weekend 2 performance had to close with something that hit close to home for the girls, and something that would remind audiences time and time again that they’re there to represent Filipino talent. The best way to do it? Flash the Philippine flag at the end. 

It was an idea that came from BINI’s dance coach, Mickey Perz. While its inclusion seemed to be the obvious choice, it wasn’t something that you could just easily incorporate into their performance for the sake of it. But for See You Later, there was already a worthy enough build-up to the emotional arc that allowed the Three Stars and a Sun to appear naturally. 

“Representing national identity through a flag can sometimes feel a bit too obvious or overly literal, so we didn’t want to do it unless it felt fully earned. But this moment carried enough weight for BINI, for the Philippines, and for the audience that has supported them all the way to this stage, that it felt right…. Creatively, it grounded the ending in something real, and emotionally, it felt like a tribute to the people and the culture that made the moment possible,” the See You Later CEO and co-founder explained. 

See You Later has already worked with countless global artists before, like Sabrina Carpenter, Missy Elliot, Keshi, and Travis Scott, to name a few. 

But what ultimately set this project apart were the stories — some understated and others more outright — that BINI sought to tell through their historic Coachella debut. 

“A lot of Coachella projects are about scale. This one had a deeper layer tied to culture, identity, and what it meant for BINI to step into that space as the first all-Filipino group to perform at the festival. You could feel that from the beginning. And that shifts how you make decisions. It becomes less about spectacle, and more about making sure everything feels right, emotionally, creatively, and in terms of what the moment actually represents.” 

It’s clear, then, that BINI wasn’t just there to showcase the repertoire they had worked so hard to build and polish over the years. They were there to put their Filipinoness on full display, for everyone watching to see that no matter where in the world BINI may be, they will always carry their culture with them wherever they go. – Rappler.com