This is how this 19-year-old faked a trip to Coachella on Instagram, fooling family and friends

I know you have seen my Coachella photos and videos all over my social media, and yes they are real! But I can’t say same for 19-year-old British YouTuber, Byron Denton, who has proven that not everything we see on social media is exactly what it seems, (that is if we didn’t already know!)

The London-based YouTuber is known for pulling of such antics. “After my first prank went so well I thought it would be fun to see if I could fool people again. So with Coachella being such a big thing across social media, I thought it was the perfect chance to try and fool people a second time,” Denton told INSIDER.

Denton started his prank with a few deceptive Instagram stories where he pretended to be at the airport alongside his friend and fellow YouTuber, Anastasia Kingsnorth. He and Kingsnorth then posed for a few photos in Coachella-ready outfits, which they edited to look like Coachella in the background.

Denton first posted a photo that showed him eating watermelon while sitting on what appears to be a field at Coachella, though the picture was actually taken in a nearby park. The photo racked up over 13,000 likes and 300 comments.

He posted another photo later that day showing him in front of the festival’s iconic ferris wheel, which also garnered over 16,000 likes and 400 comments.

Denton eventually revealed his trip was fake in a YouTube video chronicling the elaborate plan, which he says was more difficult than his first prank 

“When starting out this prank I thought it would be as simple as the last one when it came to the editing. However, this time around I was quite literally putting myself into a completely fabricated location, not just adding a few logo’s onto T-shirts. This proved quite challenging!”

Phew, all that stress just to fool people?

Once he revealed the Coachella trip was a hoax, he said the reaction was quite mixed since some people were familiar with his last prank. 

“I feel like a lot of people now follow my Instagram just to try and catch me out when making these videos. So a lot of people came forward saying they knew it was a prank, which led me to think everyone thought like that!”

Some people did manage to spot some small editing flaws in his photos, such as one commenter who noticed multiples of the same people in the background. Denton said he deleted most of these comments that accused him of posting fake photos in an effort to keep up the illusion.