Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Utopian Apocalypse

Beyond the alien wind farms of Palm Springs, down the Sonny Bono Memorial Freeway, a few miles off the 62 where the datura grows thick on the roadside, 3000 partiers converge for the eighth annual Joshua Tree Music Festival.

“I accidentally on purpose came to this campground eight years ago, woke up in the morning and thought, This would be a great place for a music festival,” says founder Barnett English. “So I moved to Joshua Tree, and 12 weeks later we had our first festival.”

Namesake Joshua trees cringe on the horizon like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. An eight-year-old shoots strangers with a squirt gun in afternoon heat. Girls in wooly leggings hula-hoop next to amplifiers blasting world, jam, and electronic music. Twenty-three bands that span the musical spectrum are lined up to play back-to-back over the weekend, including Midnite, Orgone, Delhi 2 Dublin, and San Diego’s own Heavy Guilt.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Half of our audience is from San Diego,” English continues. “To me, this really is a greater–San Diego event.”

At dusk, the landscape works its strange magic and the festival blossoms like a hallucination. Bizarre music emanates from a circus tent by the lake. Inside, an array of automated gamelan gongs ring out in foreign consonance. Curious whispers circulate as the mysterious apparatus rattles in the night.

At the main stage, costumed partiers groove to Latin funksters Mexican Institute of Sound. Later, Italian electro-wizard Gaudi dispenses crunchy bass, pacing manically and tugging at his mad-scientist hair poof. He chain-smokes and twists knobs with impish glee, dropping the bass like a dirty secret. We dance weirdly into the night, shrouded in piped fog and burning sage.

A sunrise yoga session summons Saturday. Campers cook breakfast and dance in the spray of the water truck. A train full of kids and some big kids makes slow circles around the lake. People lounge around the Utopian apocalypse in buggy goggles, sipping margaritas and hiding from midday sun. The extreme heat invokes altered states, an unspoken sense of community. The spirit moves us to dance at dusk, when New Orleans brass jammers Bonerama take the stage.

Morning begins with the Integratron sound bath, a cerebral symphony of nine resonating crystal bowls. A windstorm whips through the campsites, overturning tents and shade structures where under-slept people say things like: “I’ve put some thought into it, and I’d like to present myself to the world like a thin slice of watermelon gelatin.”

“It was kind of a last-minute decision,” says festival first-timer Kyle Kull Nixon of Ramona, 26. “There was a post on Facebook for volunteers to work for eight hours on Monday in exchange for a ticket. The atmosphere was incredible. Everyone was friendly. Everywhere you went there were people wanting to talk and music playing.”

“I’ve been going to music festivals for almost 20 years — over 450 of them, I’ve tried counting,” says English, who spends much of his summer hopping festivals with his JavaGogo organic coffee cart. “You walk away after three days from these life-changing, monumental experiences and friendships founded, to the point where you practically cry when you drive away on Monday.... I fully believe in the concept of live music in an outdoor setting over a few days with the same people.... It’s a way of life that I believe in.”

The location will see its fifth annual roots festival in October, which English says is “newgrassy...has a bit of a twang to it.” ■

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule

Beyond the alien wind farms of Palm Springs, down the Sonny Bono Memorial Freeway, a few miles off the 62 where the datura grows thick on the roadside, 3000 partiers converge for the eighth annual Joshua Tree Music Festival.

“I accidentally on purpose came to this campground eight years ago, woke up in the morning and thought, This would be a great place for a music festival,” says founder Barnett English. “So I moved to Joshua Tree, and 12 weeks later we had our first festival.”

Namesake Joshua trees cringe on the horizon like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. An eight-year-old shoots strangers with a squirt gun in afternoon heat. Girls in wooly leggings hula-hoop next to amplifiers blasting world, jam, and electronic music. Twenty-three bands that span the musical spectrum are lined up to play back-to-back over the weekend, including Midnite, Orgone, Delhi 2 Dublin, and San Diego’s own Heavy Guilt.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Half of our audience is from San Diego,” English continues. “To me, this really is a greater–San Diego event.”

At dusk, the landscape works its strange magic and the festival blossoms like a hallucination. Bizarre music emanates from a circus tent by the lake. Inside, an array of automated gamelan gongs ring out in foreign consonance. Curious whispers circulate as the mysterious apparatus rattles in the night.

At the main stage, costumed partiers groove to Latin funksters Mexican Institute of Sound. Later, Italian electro-wizard Gaudi dispenses crunchy bass, pacing manically and tugging at his mad-scientist hair poof. He chain-smokes and twists knobs with impish glee, dropping the bass like a dirty secret. We dance weirdly into the night, shrouded in piped fog and burning sage.

A sunrise yoga session summons Saturday. Campers cook breakfast and dance in the spray of the water truck. A train full of kids and some big kids makes slow circles around the lake. People lounge around the Utopian apocalypse in buggy goggles, sipping margaritas and hiding from midday sun. The extreme heat invokes altered states, an unspoken sense of community. The spirit moves us to dance at dusk, when New Orleans brass jammers Bonerama take the stage.

Morning begins with the Integratron sound bath, a cerebral symphony of nine resonating crystal bowls. A windstorm whips through the campsites, overturning tents and shade structures where under-slept people say things like: “I’ve put some thought into it, and I’d like to present myself to the world like a thin slice of watermelon gelatin.”

“It was kind of a last-minute decision,” says festival first-timer Kyle Kull Nixon of Ramona, 26. “There was a post on Facebook for volunteers to work for eight hours on Monday in exchange for a ticket. The atmosphere was incredible. Everyone was friendly. Everywhere you went there were people wanting to talk and music playing.”

“I’ve been going to music festivals for almost 20 years — over 450 of them, I’ve tried counting,” says English, who spends much of his summer hopping festivals with his JavaGogo organic coffee cart. “You walk away after three days from these life-changing, monumental experiences and friendships founded, to the point where you practically cry when you drive away on Monday.... I fully believe in the concept of live music in an outdoor setting over a few days with the same people.... It’s a way of life that I believe in.”

The location will see its fifth annual roots festival in October, which English says is “newgrassy...has a bit of a twang to it.” ■

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.