One of the dance community’s most unique festivals, Splash House, recently closed out Weekend One of its back-to-back weekends of non-stop partying. What makes Splash House unique is that the festival itself is spread out across three different hotels in the Palm Springs area: Saguaro, Renaissance, and Margaritaville. Within these hotels over the course of the weekend, meandering through the halls one might stumble into a private party in a guest room. And for those that didn’t end up wandering around the halls of the hotels, there was an incredible list of artists gracing the hotel stages throughout the two-day festival Weekend One.
Day Zero
Those present in Palm Springs on Friday got to witness one of the most surreal scenes of the entire weekend. Located at the Palm Springs Air Museum, the first of three “After Hours” events took place to kick off festivities for Splash House Weekend One, highlighted by dreamlike performances from Phantoms and the well-renowned duo, ODESZA. The venue is amazing due to the plethora of retired aircraft, from old airplanes to helicopters, all doused in flashing lights. To put the cherry on top, the main stage was situated to make it look like the DJs were performing from inside the nose of the airplane. Then the Saguaro hotel hosted the after-afters in a conference room turned nightclub for Night Zero and Night One.
Day One
People were amped up for Day One, and the toughest choice was which hotel to choose to get the party started at: Renaissance, Saguaro, or Margaritaville. Seeing Arizona local Peachy Keen take over the Renaissance Stage at 1 pm gave our day the bass house boost needed to get the festival started in the right way. The crew ended up staying back and exploring the Renaissance venue a bit more until tech house guru Dillon Nathaniel hopped on stage. At this point a difficult decision had to be made: stay to watch Dillon Nathaniel and then go to Margaritaville to close with Adapter and Lee Foss back-to-back Deeper Purpose, or go to Saguaro to see JADED and end the night with Aluna and CID back at Renaissance?
We chose the latter and didn’t regret it. JADED had one of the best sets at Saguaro the entire weekend, leading into a euphoric set from Aluna during sunset at the Renaissance. To round out Day One, CID delivered the best performance of the weekend, playing a powerful, energy-packed set to cap off Day One of Splash House.
Day Two
Day Two started the same way Day One started, having to decide where to go and who to see. The choice was obvious; BVRRN kicking off Day Two at Saguaro was one of our best decisions. Then we scored some food from the restaurant inside Saguaro before we made our way to what would be best described as controlled chaos, Margaritaville. Lucati was first on the decks at the venue with the biggest pool of the festival. Then we ventured back to Renaissance to see the powerhouse, Disco Lines, take center stage. About three songs deep into the set, Disco Lines cues into its recently released remix of INJI’s “GASLIGHT,” and our group knew this was going to be the set of the day. Following Disco Lines, we made our final stop of the weekend adventure to see Wax Motif cap off Splash House at Margaritaville.
From here on out, Splash House will be a mainstay on the Moon Lvnding festival calendar. It has a charm that makes people who attend it want to come back. From the incredible acts that graced the decks to the variety and hospitality of those venues, all the small details came together to create forever memories. To those attending Weekend Two, we hope you have as much as we did. The team here at Moon Lvnding can’t wait to run it back at Splash House in 2024.
