Truly, the most unique, abstract, and downright majestic festival happening in the world right now. This past weekend, we had the absolute time of our lives at the 10th installment of Desert Daze in Lake Perris, California. Please, read on for our breakdown of our thoughts on this year’s event.

Boasting legitimately one of the most stacked yet niche lineups we’ve ever encountered, it’s almost as if the event organizers looked into our Spotify playlists and handcrafted it to personal tastes. I’ll be writing this in first person, giving the perspective of someone who camped all three days at the festival. I arrived midday on Thursday to set up camp with my eventual group of 10 other festival goers, anxiously awaiting and plotting the next three days of sets, meal times, and bathroom breaks. If you’ve ever been on the fence about camping at a festival, this is really the one to do considering you’re close enough to walk into the grounds and it’s a wonderful experience meeting other like minded individuals too. Everyone was beyond friendly and you make friends for the weekend almost instantaneously, joining in on the plotting and gloating about who you’re excited to see.

While the weather was hot and uncomfortable at times, it certainly helped to have the massive lake in the campgrounds to cool off if needed. Water stations were there to help, shade was plentiful, and the vibes were rolling from when we entered on Friday. I kicked off my day with an interview with the entirety of Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, which will be posted soon, but they started off our festival with a complete bang. The moshing was respectful, the tunes were loud, and they filled us with energy from beginning to end. The rest of the day followed suit with a Babe Rainbow interview and their set, the sweet tunes of Chicano Batman, and my personal favorites, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. In fact, I’m still nursing a sore back as I type this from the intensity that was their dusty mosh pit.

For my whole group though, the magnum opus of the weekend was getting to witness Tame Impala’s Lonerism set in its entirety. It’s all we’ve been talking and thinking about for months, and to see it all go down was an actual top set of my lifetime. It’s a favorite record and the band absolutely crushed it from start to finish. Ending our Saturday with Mild High Club was a delight as well, but almost positive that nothing will top that Tame set, it was unbeatable.

We all decided to take it a little bit easier and arrive to festival as the sun went down on Sunday, rocking sore feet and sunburned skin. Our highlights from the day were undoubtedly Beach House, Fuzz, Levitation Room, GUM’s DJ Set, and 100% our favorite was Pond. Pond are the most underrated band of all time in our opinion, but they got the crowd and energy they deserved to truly close out Desert Daze in style.

At this point I’m still trying to process the finer moments of everything that went down, but right now, I’m in the afterglow stage of experiencing a weekend of love with my friends and other festival goers. If you’ve ever been on the fence about attending, don’t think twice, grab that ticket and make memories for the rest of your lives.

For ticketing and additional information on Desert Daze 2022, visit: https://desertdaze.org.

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Desert Daze 2022: The Best Niche Festival on Planet Earth