Shortly after the xx wrapped its set on Saturday, hundreds of tiny speckles of light filled the sky. 

Like lightening bugs, they floated higher in the sky. And then they took focus, forming themselves into a myriad of shapes and objects -- a ribbon, a cube and the famous carousel  that frames the Empire Polo Field.

That's when it became clear this wasn't your father's light show but a dazzling display of programmed drones.

Swiveling searchlights lit up the night sky a few miles away from where Coachella festivalgoers were jamming along to Lady Gaga's Saturday night performance. 

Down an unpaved street just off the desert highway, designer Jeremy Scott hosted his annual Coachella party, a brightly lit desert oasis that seemed as unreal as a mirage. 

The Candy Crush-themed bash (in honor of Scott's upcoming capsule collection inspired by the mobile app) featured performances by rappers Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert that were livestreamed by entertainment platform Tidal. At the end of the night, Katy Perry and Scott started a dance party onstage along to DJ Mia Moretti's set.

At what point does an EDM prank spiral out of control? And does that mean we really have to listen to it at every major festival now?

When the DJ/producer known as Marshmello debuted the project two years ago, he positioned it as a wink-nudge race to the bottom of American EDM gimmickry. He saw your 3-D-mapped mouse head, Deadmau5, and raised you a giant piece of grimacing fluffy candy in its stead.

The music was aggressively dumb -- corn-syrup synth lines atop same mid-tempo, almost-trap-music lurch the Chainsmokers took to the top of the charts, minus even a perfunctory stab at songwriting.

“When I’m done tonight, they are gonna have me headline,” DJ Khaled declared at the top of his Coachella set Saturday night. 

That's a rather cocky assertion when you’re playing among 150 acts, but the producer/DJ promised the tightly packed crowd in the Sahara (bodies spilled out of the sides with no visible end in sight) that he had the entire music industry waiting in the wings.

And did he deliver? No. 

"Is there anyone out there?" Kendrick Lamar kept asking as he closed the first weekend of this year's Coachella festival, and the answer was definitely yes.

But if he drew an enormous crowd on par with Lady Gaga's the night before, the acclaimed Compton rapper did without most of Gaga's pop spectacle.

Rapping largely by himself on a bare stage, Lamar performed a stripped-down set that combined staples such as "Money Trees" and "..., Don't Kill My Vibe" with tunes from his brand-new album, "Damn," which came out Friday.

The MC did bring out several surprise guests in Future, Schoolboy Q and Travis Scott, with whom he did their duet, "Goosebumps."

And several dancers joined Lamar at various points in the show. But for a rapper who's been hailed for his big ideas and intricate wordplay, this felt like a demonstration of skills over flash.

Lorde opened her set on Coachella's main stage Sunday night with an expert troll, blasting a recording of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" -- a winking reference, it seemed, to recent reports -- since refuted -- that the festival's founder had refused to book Bush (a clear Lorde influence) because people wouldn't understand her act.

Almost as soon as Lorde's set got going, though, the young New Zealander cleaved to established Coachella tradition, promising she had some surprises in store.

Judging by the crowd's enthusiastic reaction, many fans assumed that meant a guest star or two -- maybe her pal Taylor Swift?

In fact, the surprise turned out to be a performance of a new song from her upcoming album, "Melodrama," which she said is about "the ups and downs of being a twentysomething."

The track is called "Homemade Dynamite," she added, and it appeared to tell the tale of an explosive night out.

PHOTOS: Lorde and other Day 3 Coachella performers

A packed, totally enthralled crowd flooding the Outdoor Stage. Thundering drums, ethereal vocals, a surprise Pharrell Williams cameo.

A triumphant turn from an EDM superstar? Nope. Just film composer Hans Zimmer absolutely devastating a Coachella crowd that had no idea what it was in for.

When the Coachella lineup was announced this year, Zimmer's presence was the one chin-scratcher.  His scores have, for three decades, set the tone for some of the biggest blockbuster films of our time. "The Dark Knight," "Inception," "The Lion King," for starters. The resume speaks for itself.

Nao was faced with a tough task for her debut showing at Coachella on Sunday afternoon.

She had to command a crowd that already had two days of the festival under its belt -- though it may be more accurate to say under its feet.

Audience weariness aside, playing anytime before 5 p.m. can be a toss-up, especially on the festival's final day.

"Don’t be scared — I’ve done this before,” Lady Gaga told the massive crowd gathered for her Saturday night headlining set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. And, sure, this was hardly the Super Bowl halftime veteran’s first experience before a live audience numbering in the tens of thousands.

But the performance did mark Lady Gaga’s debut at America’s highest-profile music festival, held every spring for nearly two decades on the sprawling grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio. It also opened a new chapter for Coachella, which has long hesitated to book a current pop superstar for its gigantic main stage.

Once known for presenting edgy alternative rock and dance music, the annual desert blowout has moved gradually toward the mainstream as its size, prestige and reputation as an upscale celebrity magnet have grown. Madonna famously performed in one of the festival’s tents in 2006, and last year Rihanna dropped in for a surprise appearance with the EDM star Calvin Harris.

At one show, a cheek-to-jowl crowd shuddering under peak-hour sub-bass so strong it could stop your pulse. At another, a daytime crowd of techno lifers trying to figure out the magic tricks of a supergroup making a rare appearance.

These were the scenes at DJ Snake and Belleville Three, each defining the twin poles of dance music at Coachella right now.

DJ Snake is the standard bearer for what EDM culture has become now -- an arms race of aggressive trap and dubstep, with occasional punctuation of high-velocity rave.