Instead of their typical festival experience, Desert Daze 2021 will be hosting a series of small concerts at the iconic venue Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA, close to Joshua Tree National Park. The lineup is yet to be finalized, but there’s a claim made by the Desert Daze organizers that many of the artists aren’t “usually experienced in an intimate setting,” which implies it will be comparable to their typical festival lineups.
A teaser video for the concert series begins by revealing that the shows will take place from October 17 through November 23, 2021. The drone footage zooms out to show the venue’s location in the small Western town quite far into the desert. While their usual location at Moreno Beach in the Lake Perris State Recreation Area near Riverside is plenty far into the desert for many Los Angeles natives, the 2021 location is fully out in the desert.
“#DesertDaze2021 is a wish. It is symbolic. Most importantly, it is happening,” the festival announced on Instagram. “This year Desert Daze will be presented as a time release capsule, a series of (insert number here) concerts, featuring measured doses of artists not usually experienced in an intimate setting. We’re working around the clock to finish the lineup and make sure we can adhere to all health and safety protocols. All shows will be announced and on sale soon along with motel packages.”
Pappy & Harriet’s is a famous venue that has held shows by plenty of major artists. Some other musicians on their schedule this summer include Circles Around the Sun, Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s Superwolves, Alex G, Waxahatchee and Black Midi, as well as IDLES, Dinosaur Jr., and Iceage in the months following Desert Daze. However, in spite of the legendary status of the venue, Desert Daze reassured festival-goers that the 2022 edition will be their traditional festival at Lake Perris.
The festival talked more about the reasoning behind their 2021 plans on their website, “Live music is integral to the human experience, from fossilized flutes older than the idea of cities to 3D projections and the wind of amplified electric pulses. The concert has survived every catastrophe that we have. To move forward, Desert Daze is looking back, not to the Neolithic, but to 2012. An inversion of numbers, alignment of celestial bodies, or maybe just the right amount of compulsion and sunstroke, bring us back to where it all began. In the spirit of the first Desert Daze, which took place over 11 days at a remote desert roadhouse, this October and November we return as a series of (insert number here) concerts at the majestic Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown.”
Desert Daze 2020 had actually originally been planned to take place at Lake Perris when it was announced for October last year. Desert Daze also had a spring event, RE+UNION, scheduled for April at Pappy & Harriet’s. Some of the artists on the 2020 RE+UNION lineup included Shannon & The Clams, The Budos Band, A Place to Bury Strangers and Mdou Moctar, among others. The flagship festival in the fall never announced a lineup before both events were canceled due to covid-19.
The 2019 edition featured artists like Stereolab, The Flaming Lips and DIIV on Day One, Devo, Flying Lotus and Ween on Day Two and Wu-Tang Clan, Khruangbin and Ride on Day Three.
Photo credit: Mauricio Alvarado
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