Splash House Brings Ibiza to Palm Springs A candid tour to one of California's best independent summer festivals

Palm Springs is a place strikingly dissimilar to any other American destination vacation city. In the same breath, one could also say that West Coast events, as a collective, are an entirely different breed of events. Splash House is a uniquely wild, weekend long, high summer event, that brought that Circoloco Ibiza vibe (“pronounced eye-bee-tha’ love”) to Palm Springs this past weekend with a banging, well-curated lineup of DJ’s, whose BPM’s were racing with my heart-rate, speeding up and slowing down throughout every glorious DJ set. Three large hotel venues, three huge pools, and two (and a half) days to go nuts. Splash House brought out the type of crowd that smirks the following Monday when they tell they’re co-workers “My weekend was lovely, and yours?”. In reality, the videos in the groupchat shows you licking, what may be tequila salt, off the body off an evenly tan, bathing suit clad hottie in reflective non-logoed sunglasses. Very Palm Springs. 

While the attendees were wild, fun young adults going absolutely crazy to the absolute mental beats the DJ’s spun, Splash House’s venue strategy was refreshingly structured. The venues were considerably easy to navigate, the shuttle service ensured those who opted for Uber/Lyft could find their drivers with ease, and their vaccination/testing requirements ensured a level of security and confidence in one’s choice to attend the festival. Compared to the music festivals who typically don’t consider these small logistical nightmares, Splash House sets a high standard for streamlining the good time you’re trying to achieve. 

Splash House does it all again next weekend (yes, it’s a two-weekend event) with a completely different lineup of DJ’s. The flashbacks are hitting me as I type this article, back home in LA’s Agora Temple, smoking “sacrament” after donating $10 extra to use their wifi in their extremely comfortable lounge area.