Desert Daze

Desert Daze is a music festival held at the Lake Perris Recreation Area in Moreno Valley, California. Festival founder Phil Pirrone, formerly of post-hardcore band, A Static Lullaby, and of JJUUJJUU, had "...always wanted to do an extended festival, and all these people being in the desert for an extended amount of time presented a perfect opportunity to make that happen". The current format of the festival is no longer extended, spanning a more traditional three days. Described as "sort of an anti-festival festival", the festival grounds often showcase abstract and psychedelic art installations, thematically aligned with the artists primarily from the neo-psychedelia, desert rock, experimental, dream pop, art pop, hip-hop, lo-fi, and noise genres. Notable headliners include King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Iggy Pop, Tame Impala, Stereolab, Devo, Wu-Tang Clan, Beach House, and My Bloody Valentine. In 2022, the festival drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 attendees.

History

Pirrone previously organized the Moon Block Party festival, which evolved into Desert Daze in 2012, where the festival was initially held in Desert Hot Springs, California. For the following 3 years, until 2015, the festival took place at the Sunset Ranch Oasis in Mecca, shifting from its previous extended 11 day format. In 2016, the festival relocated to the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree National Park. The most recent iterations of the festival, since 2018, have been in the Lake Perris State Recreation Area with cancellations in 2020, 2023, and 2024.

Popular culture

The 2019 poster for Desert Daze was featured briefly in Ari Aster's Beau is Afraid.

Lineups

The following lineups include artists that have performed at the Lake Perris State Recreation Area venue including years: 2022, 2021, 2019, and 2018