Desert Hearts Festival 2023

May house, techno, and love set you free. WHY DESERT HEARTS? Desert Hearts Festival, one of North America’s most celebrated boutique electronic music events, has announced its return to Lake Perris, California May 5-8, 2023. Made with an abundance of love and attention to detail, Desert Hearts offers an elaborate yet intimate take on live music that can only be found in the idyllic mountain-rimmed valley of California, a paradisal escapade like no other festival in the world. With an ever-growing community keen to get a taste of the idiocentric festival, 2023 is set to be its best year yet, with a host of improvements in place, rooted in the feedback of their devout family of followers. CODE OF COMMUNITY A fundamental factor of the DH experience is its collective nature and code of community, which has been built into the festival since its inception in 2012. Cherishing the importance of unity, its four founders (Lee Reynolds, Marbs, Porky, and label head Mikey Lion) go by some core values that quite frankly, should be at the heart of every festival. Inclusivity, creative freedom, and acceptance remain front and center for 2023. It is this exact spirit that makes Desert Hearts one of the wildest and most authentic community-driven festival experiences out there. Foster free creative self-expression and self-discovery. Encourage free thinking and individuality. Look out for one another and lift each other up in a positive way. Strive to give back to our local communities. Encourage participation and self-reliance. Believe in the balance of both the sacred and the temporal. Inspire one another to proliferate these values in the world. Whether you’ve got some cool deco for your camp, tripped-out clothes or costumes, paintings or art instalations, or like to dance like nobody is watching, this is the place to do it. With a very much ‘you bring the vibes’ tenor, Desert Hearts sets an example of what can happen when we lead with love. VENUE This year, the forward-thinking founders behind the escapist, cult-classic SoCal music festival have returned to its ‘one stage, one vibe’ policy as a way of encouraging participation, self-expression, and community, all under one single dancefloor and the realm of dance music. Of course, the dancefloor is at the forefront of the weekend, however, there is more than meets the eye at Desert Hearts. With so much on offer, the 2023 edition will feature a tighter and more cohesive layout (with the beach remaining a focal point), additions of interactive activities and water sports, as well as an abundance of workshops and a state-of-the-art healing sanctuary for those that need a well-deserved recharge. Committed to creating a space for community healers to gather and share their knowledge, the revolutionary Healing Sanctuary will host various forms of health-givings, including Sound Healing, Crystal Healing, Reiki, Energy Work, Spoken Word, and Relax/Recharge Zones - and it doesn’t stop there. Workshops this year will also be hosted around the site, with everything from flow classes to yoga and movement arts, to key speakers and presentations, offering spaces for you to open your heart and learn something new. Okay, we’ll give you one more thing to get excited about. With the famed edition of Tonight’s Tavern a massive hit for the festival's Lake Perris debut last year, the interactive lakeside saloon will see additional programming elements for this year’s event, complete with comedy, musical performances, and other unexpected oddities for your enjoyment. It sounds too good to be true! CAMPING Where do we stay, you ask? Well, for those looking for an elevated camping experience like no other, you can reserve a spot at the Lakeside Ready-Set Camping site - the newly imagined camping experience with a beachfront location is just steps away from the main festival amenities. The Ready-Set Camping area features two options of Ready-Set tents to choose for your convenience: A standard pre-set camping tent. A more premium Canvas Bell Tent with both options designed for two people. Catering to all, whether it's packing light, not owning camping gear, or flying in from the other side of the world, everyone is able to experience the magic of Desert Hearts with these all-encompassing packages. There will also be camps right off the dance floor and stage-side car camping on grass for attendees who want to sleep as close to the "House, Techno, Love" action as possible. LINE-UP Beyond the new and improved venue, it remains the musical offering that makes Desert Hearts one of the best-curated parties on the planet. With a line-up intrinsically created by the Desert Hearts crew, it is the nomadic journeys of Mikey Lion, Lee Reynolds, Marbs, and Porky that inspire the festival's unique roster every year. Between each edition of the internationally acclaimed festival, the Desert Hearts crew hit the road to grace the booths of some of the world's most celebrated parties, where they become further entrenched in the sounds of tomorrow, whilst brushing shoulders with the scene’s foremost flag bearers. It is essentially the group's collective networking that helps them find new artists and talents from around the world, which has aided the curation of the festival's biggest and most wide-reaching lineup to date. Pulling out all of the stops, an array of big names have been reeled for the occasion, as well as artists from further afield, who are on the brink of their DJ career take-offs. Highlights of the explosive docket include an epic B2B performance from Chicago house music legends Derrick Carter and Mark Farina, as well as Gene Farris. Detroit underground genesis’ and two of the city’s house music champions will also take center stage, DJ Minx and DJ Holographic each commanding the decks over the course of the weekend. The opulent billing continues with multi-genre pioneer Skream, UK dynamo Dusky, Turbo label-head TIGA, Dirtybird boss Claude VonStroke, a debut from lo-fi originator DJ Seinfeld, alongside dancefloor favorite Justin Martin, progressive house sensation Miss Monique, Hot creations founder Lee Foss, elrow resident Tini Gessler, 90’s rave revival production duo Prospa, and Club Bad’s percussive house frontrunner Melé. Additional highlights include Polish house duo Catz ’n Dogz, emerging tech house producer Eddy M, and next-generation house risers VNSSA and Mary Droppinz. Dipping further into more esoteric and left-of-center stylings, CINTHIE, Soul Clap, Lubelski, Partiboi69, and newer names such as Atish, Eskuche, Rybo, as well as cinematic techno producer Rinzen, a B2B set from Cascandy and Beth Lydi, and Wyatt Marshall, Evan Casey, Morpéi B2B Ofier live and Tara Brooks, among others. Of course, no Desert Hearts celebration would be complete without an appearance from the curators themselves. All four members of the DH crew will also command the crowd over the weekend. A "very special guest" is still to be revealed. Keep your eyes peeled. For the perfectly intimate lake-side vibes and the positive Desert Hearts energy for which the festival is so famous, this is the perfect way to kickstart your summer here at Lake Perris, California. Tickets are OUT NOW.

Lissy Lübeck

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