The multi-day Desert Daze Festival made its full return to Monarch Beach in Lake Perris on Friday and kicked off its 10th anniversary with more music, art and a focus on advocacy.
There were noticeable contrasts to last year’s scaled-down version, when the festival was condensed due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s layout with four stages, immersive art installations and advocacy activations delivered a more typical Desert Daze experience.
With temperatures in the mid-90s, people were dipping their feet into the lake and walking around in swimsuits. Others sat under the shade of the trees while performers took over the festival’s four stages and offered various sounds ranging from jazz, synth-pop, psychedelic and different styles of rock.
The Moon Stage hosted the majority of psychedelic rockers like Brainstory, Chicano Batman and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. The Block Stage provided international sounds, such as Algeria’s Imarhan, the British funk group Cymande and Australia’s The Babe Rainbow. The Beach Stage ranged from Small Black’s chillwave rhythms, L.A. Witch’s garage rock angst and Cortex’s jazz-funk fusion.
The Sanctuary/Domelandia Stage had more experimental acts like Molly Lewis, who incorporates whistling into her music, and the Space Lady, who mixes synth-pop with psychedelic rock. One of the more notable acts who took that stage was Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul from Ghent, Belgium. The duo’s music was an energetic force of dance and pop that engaged the crowd, getting them to jump, dance and sing along.
Danny Zapata, 31, and Mayra Campos, 26, of Rialto, said it was their first time attending and that they enjoyed the festival vibe.
“Every band’s been really good, even some of the bands that I’d never heard of,” Zapata said.
“I really like all the art,” Campos added. “We went to other festivals, and they weren’t too heavy on art.”
This year’s immersive art installations were more extensive than in past years, with familiar installations such as Cambria Guevara’s “Inception of Love” alongside a few new ones.
There were three dome installations, and the largest had a fog machine and projector with alternating lights and sounds. Most people sat at the edges while the sound played, and fog filled the space. One of the other domes had a red chaise longue chair with flashing colorful lights in the background where people took turns posing for photos.
Another art installation consisted of a collection of reflective mirror-like displays with alternating colored lights. Some of them had an object as their primary focus, such as a metallic mannequin with a flower bouquet for a head that spun like a ballerina in a music box.
Uma Murphy, 27 and Jeff Morris, 26, of San Diego, were also first time attendees of Desert Daze and said they enjoyed the festival’s size and curation in comparison to other festival’s they’ve attended.
“It feels like a cross of Coachella and Burning Man on a tiny scale,” Murphy said.
Another aspect of the festival that sets itself apart from others is its focus on advocacy.
Desert Daze partnered with Global Inheritance and insect chef and Brooklyn Bugs Founder Joseph Yoon to create Meat the Beetles, a campaign that seeks to offer insects as an alternative source of protein. In a recent phone interview, Eric Ritz, executive director and founder of Global Inheritance, said that the environmental movement of the ’60s inspired the idea for Meat the Beetles.
“We thought about, what if instead of eating meat pies and burgers, we were eating insects and how that would impact our world,” Ritz said. “We thought it’d be interesting to give people the opportunity to try insects in a way they never have before.”
The Meat the Beetles tent at Desert Daze, offered various samples for festival goers, including cricket Minnesota trail mix that included avocado, beets, grasshoppers, black ants, mustard greens; and the superworm arancini ball with cricket bolognese, pecorino romano.
Zachary Canfield, 21, of Riverside and Evina Romero, 22, of Temecula, both tried the samples at the Meat the Beetles booth. Romero said the idea was appealing based on the bugs being natural, while Canfield was sold on the preparation and flavor.
“They all kind of had their own unique set of flavors, but I think the most flavorful was the surprisingly the ants,” Canfield said. “I think the biggest thing is getting over the fact that you’re eating a bug, but when they prepare it in these ways, it makes it more accessible. I’m glad I tried it.”
The festival also partnered with the company Propeller to create Portal. This psychedelics campaign seeks to destigmatize the responsible use of psychedelics, educate about their benefits and advocate for legal accessibility. Propeller founder Brandon Deroche said in a recent phone interview that the campaign aggregated several resources and partnered with cultural leaders, driving the conversations about the benefits of psychedelics such as psilocybin.
“Part of what’s happened in the past is that people think it’s just a hippie drug versus plant medicine and tools for mental health,” Deroche said. “We want to educate people as psychedelics become more mainstream and bring them in the right way.”
Alice Morgan, 32 and Johnathan Betz, 34, of Joshua Tree have been to the festival three times and said that Desert Daze is uniqueness and addition of new experiences is what keeps them coming back.
“Everyone here seems to be in a mindset that I don’t find at other festivals,” Betz said. “I feel like yeah, we are here for the music and to look at all the art, but to be able to experience it over and over again while meeting new people and seeing new things every year, you can’t beat that.”
Desert Daze
When: Sept. 30
Where: Monarch Beach, Lake Perris State Recreation Area, Lake Perris
Also: Oct. 1-2 Lake Perris State Recreation Area, 17801 Lake Perris Drive, Lake Perris. Single-day admission is $139-$666; Parking passes are $125-$250. All passes are available at desertdaze.org.
