Desert Daze met an unexpected roadblock when thunderstorms forced the festival to shut things down (they hope for the time being) in the middle of its Friday night lineup. Tame Impala was playing when their set was cut short due to safety issues, with the festival issuing an advisory (via a series of tweets) for attendees to seek shelter outside the festival grounds.
The bands who were scheduled to play after Tame Impala include Lumerians, Wand, Connan Mockasin, Sons of Kemet and a special set from Jjuujjuu, Boogarins and Kikagaku Moyo.
UPDATE (10/13 12:05 a.m.): Desert Daze has asked camping attendees not to sleep in their tent and find a local hotel or go home. If you’re in a car and have nowhere else to go, stay in place. They also issued more tweets on the weather conditions:
UPDATE (10/13 12:03 PM): Desert Daze day two will proceed as planned, according to a tweet from the festival’s official account. Additionally, all Friday one-day passes will be honored today – a pretty solid make-up for disappointed fans considering the festival’s first day wasn’t cancelled until the headliner’s set. Additionally, the festival apologized early this morning for the traffic jam leading out of the festival grounds.
Speaking of the headliners, Tame Impala took the time to post on social media and apologize to their disappointed fans.
UPDATE (10/16): Desert Daze organizers released an official statement about the weekend:
Message from Desert Daze:
We’ve been planning our move to Lake Perris for many months and are working side-by-side with Park Rangers to make this a special and safe event.
Last night, due to extreme lightning storms rolling in a few songs after the start of Tame Impala’s set, we unfortunately had to ask all guests to exit the Desert Daze grounds, return to their cars and seek shelter to remain safe. We worked closely with CalFire, Park Rangers and meteorologists to make the difficult decision to halt the show and immediately implement our event’s contingency plan. We decided to end the remainder of the evening’s programming once it was clear the weather was going to continue to be a safety issue. The safety of our guests is our top priority.
We also acknowledge that patrons experienced difficulties entering the venue in a timely fashion and we have been proactive in trying to resolve this. We redirected all vehicles to Transition Road and Via Del Lago, changed the location of the Main Box Office, and shifted all campers to be processed directly via the camping entry, alleviating some of the congestion. All parties involved are confident that this new strategy for getting fans into the Moreno Beach grounds during the remainder of the festival will be faster and more efficient. Parking will remain free for the remainder of the weekend and all Friday Single Day tickets will be honored today, Saturday, October 13.
Due to scheduling, Tame Impala will not be performing today or tomorrow, and we are working with the rest of the Friday evening performers to reschedule as many of them as possible. Updates will be shared via social media and via the Desert Daze app.
The Desert Daze staff spent the rest of the night and morning remaining available to any patrons in need of assistance and preparing the grounds for a safe and enjoyable second day on site at Moreno Beach, Lake Perris State Recreation Area. The Desert Daze grounds are open today and we look forward to welcoming fans back for the rest of the weekend.
Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado
Leave a Comment