Same Same But Different returned to Lake Perris this year for another weekend of music, camping, swimming and just about everything else you can fit into three days.
Going into the festival, we already knew the lineup was strong. Of The Trees, LSDREAM, Tape B and Gramatik were at the top, with names like Effin, Vincent Antone, Machinedrum, TRUTH, Ship Wrek and plenty more scattered throughout the weekend.
But after actually spending a weekend at SSBD, the lineup is only part of what makes this festival work.
It’s a festival where you can spend the afternoon swimming in the lake, catch a few sets, take a boat to an island, completely abandon your schedule and somehow still feel like you did the weekend right.
Friday: Getting Settled In
Friday was our first real chance to get a feel for the festival.
SSBD is noticeably smaller than a lot of the festivals we cover, and that ended up being one of its biggest strengths. You can get around the grounds pretty easily, getting close to a stage isn’t a huge ordeal, and by the second day you start recognizing people you’ve already crossed paths with a few times.
The first day also gave us a chance to catch some artists we had been looking forward to seeing.
Vincent Antone brought a mix of funk, bass and live instrumentation that worked especially well during the daytime, while Effin was one of our more anticipated sets of the weekend after recently announcing his new HEARTBEATS album.
As the sun went down, Of The Trees took over the Same Stage for one of Friday’s biggest sets.
His darker, slower style of bass music felt right at home once the temperature dropped and the festival transitioned into nighttime.
And when the main stage wrapped up, there was still plenty happening elsewhere.
That became a theme throughout the weekend.
Saturday: This Is Where SSBD Makes Sense
By this point, trying to stick to a strict schedule was basically over; Saturday was when we really started to understand SSBD.
You might leave camp planning to see one artist and end up stopping somewhere completely different along the way. With the size of the festival, you also don’t feel like you’re sacrificing half your day every time you change plans.
One of those stops on Saturday was the Paint Party, which ended up being one of the more fun daytime moments of the weekend. It was exactly what it sounds like: music, a crowd ready to get messy and a whole lot of paint flying around.
It wasn’t something that needed a massive stage or headliner attached to it. People were just having fun, getting covered in paint and dancing in the middle of the afternoon. It was messy, a little ridiculous and a nice reminder that not everything at a festival needs to revolve around who’s playing the next big set.
Another major highlight was Nakey Island.
You actually have to take a boat across Lake Perris to get there, which already makes it one of the more unique festival experiences we’ve seen.
Once you’re on the island, everything feels removed from the main festival. There’s music, beach areas, activities and enough going on that you can easily spend a few hours there without realizing how much time has passed.
Machinedrum playing an exclusive set on the island was a perfect example of what makes it fun. It wasn’t some massive production or main-stage spectacle. It was just a cool set happening in a place you had to go out of your way to find.
Back on the mainland, after getting cleaned up from the day on the water, Kasablanca was easily another highlight of Saturday.
Their live setup immediately stood out from a weekend filled with traditional DJ sets. Between the synths, live vocals and the amount of energy coming from the stage, their performance felt like an actual show rather than another stop on the schedule.
There’s something about Kasablanca’s melodic, progressive sound that also worked really well in the setting. Hearing it as the day started transitioning into night at Lake Perris was one of those moments where the location and the music just made sense together.
From there, the night only got bigger.
Gramatik and LSDREAM were two of the obvious highlights back at the Same Stage.
Gramatik’s funkier sound was a nice switch-up before LSDREAM closed things out with one of the largest crowds we saw all weekend.
Saturday probably summed up SSBD better than any other day.
We saw some great music, but some of our favorite parts of the day happened between sets.
Sunday: Making the Most of What’s Left
By Sunday, everyone looked like they had been camping at a music festival for three days. That’s part of it.
LSDREAM also brought LIGHTCODE back to the festival, giving people something completely different from his nighttime performance.
The final day felt more relaxed. There was less pressure to figure everything out and more willingness to just walk around and see where the day went.
There was still plenty of music to catch, with artists like Andy Frasco & The U.N. and TRUTH helping carry the final day before Tape B eventually took over the Same Stage.
Tape B was a fitting way to finish the weekend. His mix of bass music, hip-hop and older dubstep influences has made him one of the biggest names in bass over the last few years, and there were clearly a lot of people waiting all weekend for his set.
But by Sunday night, our biggest takeaway wasn’t really about one particular performance.
It was how much we had done outside of them.
More Than Music
This is probably the biggest difference between SSBD and most other festivals we attend. There is a lot to do, and not in the usual “there are some art installations near the entrance” kind of way.
There were workshops, wellness activities, interactive art, the Creation Station, lake activities, the Family Garden, smaller stages and plenty of random things happening around the grounds.
Then you have an entire island that requires a boat ride to reach.
The lake itself also makes a huge difference.
Being able to wake up at camp and spend part of the afternoon in the water before heading into the festival changes the entire pace of the weekend. There isn’t the same feeling that you need to be standing in front of a stage from the moment the gates open until the music stops.
Sometimes we did exactly that. Other times we didn’t see music for hours.
Both felt like the right decision.
Same Same, But Definitely Different
SSBD isn’t trying to be the biggest festival in California. That’s probably why it works.
The smaller attendance makes the entire weekend easier to navigate and gives the festival a more relaxed feeling than events where you’re constantly fighting crowds, walking long distances or worrying about getting to the next stage on time.
There were some changes this year that returning attendees will probably have different opinions on. The festival consolidated more of its larger programming around the Same Stage, and the overall layout felt different from previous editions.
But it also gave us a reason to spend more time exploring everything else.
And that’s ultimately where SSBD won us over.
Of course we remember the big sets. Of The Trees was great. Kasablanca was great. LSDREAM was great. Tape B was great.
But we also remember getting covered in paint, taking the boat across the lake, wandering around without really knowing where we were going, finding things we hadn’t planned on seeing and hanging out by the water without feeling like we needed to rush back to a stage.
That’s the part of Same Same But Different that is hard to understand from a lineup poster.
And just days after the festival ended, SSBD gave fans another reason to look forward to coming back.
While festival tickets seem to get more expensive every year, SSBD announced that its 2027 Community Tier will actually be cheaper — $295 all-in, $60 less than the opening Community Tier for 2026.
The reason is pretty interesting.
SSBD co-founder Brad Sweet built ShopTickets, a new ticketing platform on Shopify designed to cut out the fees that have become a frustrating part of buying festival tickets. According to SSBD, a GA ticket last year carried around $56 in ticketing fees. With ShopTickets, the ticketing fee included in the $295 Community Tier is just 75 cents!
Instead of keeping those savings, SSBD is passing them back to attendees through the lower ticket price. It’s a pretty fitting move for a festival that talks so much about community. After spending the weekend there, that idea feels less like a marketing line and more like something SSBD is actively trying to build around.
And ShopTickets isn’t only for SSBD. The platform is available to other festivals, promoters and venues as well, potentially giving independent event organizers another option outside of the traditional ticketing companies.
So after three days at Lake Perris, our takeaway is pretty simple:
You can go into Same Same But Different with a perfectly planned schedule.
You probably won’t follow it.
You’ll probably come home with a few stories you weren’t expecting.
And now, somehow, coming back next year is getting cheaper instead of more expensive.
We’ll see you back at Lake Perris in 2027.
