The first day of the 2018 Desert Daze festival could’ve gone better.
The 3-day music fest, held this year at Lake Perris after previous years in the Joshua Tree and North Palm Springs, saw the crazy weather late Friday night, including thunder, lightning, and rain that ended up bringing the show to an earlier than expected, according to NME. Of course, weather is something totally out of a festival’s hands, but there were also other issues.
Getting into the festival seemed to be the biggest issue for those attending the first day of the festival – with many waiting in traffic for hours.
My @desert_daze 2018 so far – get to venue entrance, wait in the car for 2 hours and 30 minutes because there is no one to guide traffic or tell us what to do. Pay $20 for the privilege of wasting two and a half hours.
— Samuel S (@samselv) October 13, 2018
@desert_daze WTF Desert Daze, I've been sitting in traffic at your entrance for an hour and a half, missing all the acts I wanted to see? This is FUCKED UP. @siriusxmvolume pic.twitter.com/C00orP0pgm
— Irish Keith (@tismeselfyaknow) October 13, 2018
The festival, recognizing that was an issue, tweeted that they have worked to fix it for Saturday and will no longer be charging for parking.
Lastly, we are deeply sorry about the traffic today. We have made the necessary adjustments to get cars in faster.
Parking will be free for the rest of the weekend & we will be refunding everyone’s parking fees who have already paid.
We apologize & look fwd to seeing u today
— Desert Daze (@desert_daze) October 13, 2018
Once fans were able to get in, the bad weather arrived forcing Friday’s headliner Tame Impala to cut their set after just a few minutes.
Due to safety concerns regarding dangerous weather, we are asking all guests to immediately exit the Desert Daze grounds and return to their cars and seek shelter. We ask that you stay in your cars and remain calm. We intend to continue on, but first need to consult with police
— Desert Daze (@desert_daze) October 13, 2018
As the Press Enterprise noted, festival goers stayed near the venue in hopes the show would eventually continue – which it didn’t.
Fans hung around in their cars and huddled in campsites in hopes the show would resume, but the storms continued and were so insistent that in addition to pulling the plug on the show, the festival urged campers to evacuate the campgrounds and go home or find a hotel.
Tame Impala posted that they were “devastated” and hoped for everyone’s safety.
And after all that happened, no one seemed very happy after Day 1 of the event.
$300+ and 7 hours to see 2 live tame impala songs lmao what a deal
— eileen (@hotwingsordie) October 13, 2018
definitely saw only 4 tame impala songs before desert daze was cancelled for the night. great performance but this whole festival was kinda a disaster from the start
— tyler from debate (@tyisastupidname) October 13, 2018
Can't give them away no one wants to go it's a disaster. Stay far away
— MediaOffline (@_MediaOffline_) October 13, 2018
Day 2 of Desert Daze is scheduled feature King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard as the headliner.
Day two of Desert Daze is set to begin as scheduled and we hope everyone had a safe remainder of the night. All Friday passes will be honored today and parking will remain free all weekend.
— Desert Daze (@desert_daze) October 13, 2018
