Desert Daze music festival has announced its return to Lake Perris, CA, complete with art installations and a characteristically eclectic lineup. The fest is set to take place on November 12-14, 2021, and camping and festival passes can be purchased here. 

Headliners include The War on Drugs, Kamasi Washington, Japanese Breakfast and Toro y Moi, who will perform alongside various other celebrated artists like Ty Segall, Devendra Banhart, Tim Heidecker & Weyes Blood, The Black Angels, Andy Shauf and more.

“It’s been a long year+ away from the Desert Daze community and we are really excited about seeing the people that make this event so special, and seeing this beautiful, multi-faceted lineup at the lake,” says Desert Daze founder, curator and JJUUJJUU frontman, Phil Pirrone.

Headlining act The War on Drugs will perform on Friday, after having announced their upcoming album I Don’t Live Here Anymore earlier this week and sharing the first single from the LP, “Living Proof,” alongside a cinematic music video. The band’s new album is set to be released in October of this year via Atlantic Records. Shortly before the pandemic, the indie-rockers returned to the stage after not performing for over a year, covering Patti Smith, Neil Young and the Pretenders in their hometown of Philly. 

Frequent desert-dweller Ty Segall will also play a set on the first day of the festival, having teamed up with singer-songwriters Bill Callahan and Bonnie “Prince” Billy for an experimental cover of Johnnie Frierson’s ‘90s classic, “Miracles,” earlier this year. The artist also collaborated with Cory Hanson of Wand on a groovy single called “She’s a Beam” and released a fuzzy Harry Nilsson covers EP called Segall Smeagol last year.

Chillwave pioneer Toro y Moi will headline the third day of this year’s edition of Desert Daze, after celebrating the 10th anniversary of his second studio album, Underneath the Pine, earlier this year. The artist released a fully instrumental version of the record in February, allowing fans to “hear all of the imperfections and happy accidents sprinkled throughout the record that make so many great moments.” In 2020, the musician released a cover of Latin soul artist Joe Bataan’s single “Ordinary Guy” for Bandcamp’s Juneteenth initiative, which saw the platform donate their share of all sales from Juneteenth to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.

In May, the festival had announced that for 2021 they’d be replacing the annual festival with a series of smaller shows in October and November at the Pioneertown, CA venue Pappy & Harriet’s, saying 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,” and calling live music “integral to the human experience.” 

Desert Daze also announced a celebration of their original festival called Desert Daze: RE+UNION in 2020, which was set to take place at Pappy & Harriet’s and feature Shannon & The Clams, A Place to Bury Strangers, The Budos Band and more. The event was postponed due to the pandemic. 

Previous Desert Daze lineups have included acts like Warpaint, Slowdive, Death Grips, Ween, Devo, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Ride, Iggy Pop, Sleep, Kurt Vile, White Fence and more.

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna