For the past two summers, I’ve flown across the country to Palm Springs, CA in both June and August to enjoy a weekend in the desert with my friends at Splash House. Since few people even know what it is, and I get questions every time I go, I figured I’d share more about it on here!
What is Splash House?
It’s a weekend long multi-venue pool party and music festival. I LOVE live music, and while I do enjoy camping music festivals, I enjoy hotel/AirBnB music festivals even more haha.
Where does it happen?
Palm Springs, CA. The three hotels that currently host the event are: The Saguaro, The Riviera and The Renaissance. Each resort sets up the stages near the pools so you can be in the pool + enjoy the music. At The Riviera the stage is right up next to the pool so you can get really close. For the other two, there is space to dance between the stages and the pools, but you can definitely still see the stage and hear the music from in the water. The festival has shuttles that run between all locations all day, so you don’t have to worry about walking, driving or ubering!
What kind of music?
If the name Splash House wasn’t enough of a giveaway, the music is *primarily* house music, but not totally. To give you an idea of artists, a few of the ones I have seen there include: Diplo, Ekali, Mark Knight, MK, Louis the Child, What So Not, Dom Dolla, Shiba San and more. You can view their past lineups here!
How long does it last? How late does the music go?
Music starts Friday night at After Hours, which takes place at the Palm Springs Air Museum (you get to hang out in an old air hanger, which is pretty darn cool). That goes from 9pm – 2am. Then on Saturday the music at the hotels generally goes from 12pm – 8:30pm, followed by another night of After Hours at the Air Museum from 9pm – 2am. Lastly, on Sunday, the music goes from 12-8:30/9:00pm and then there is usually one more after party at a bar or club downtown that you can buy tickets too. I have yet to make it to the Sunday night party because we’re all too tired by the time it rolls around haha.
What do tickets cost?
Tickets for the festival cost around $140 for general admission and the After Hours tickets are either $45 for general admission or $95 for VIP (which is 100% worth it). This does include both nights of After Hours. We actually won the balcony decorating contest last August (photo below), so Brian, Lizzie, Kenny and I had our tickets and hotel comped this past June and moving forward we get free tickets for life! (Not including After Hours)
Where do you stay?
All 3 of the hotels have Splash House packages, so you stay at any of them, or rent an AirBnb, choose a different hotel in Palm Springs, etc. In 2018 and this past June the four of us (Kenny, Lizzie, Brian and myself) stayed at The Saguaro and loved it. It’s convenient to be able to eat at the restaurants they have at the hotel, be able to see the music from our balcony, or just go take a breather in the AC if you need a break from the heat. But, you have less space and a ton more people to deal with. (Pros & Cons, always).
But, this past time we rented an AirBnB (because we had 10 in our group) and it was perfect. We rented a gorgeous home that was only a 3 block walk from The Saguaro (so we could easily walk to the shuttles). It was amazing to have our own pool (part of the backyard view below), enough space to sleep ten people, four bathrooms and a whole outside grill and patio. We ended up buying groceries on Friday afternoon and were able to cook dinner Friday, brunch Saturday, dinner Saturday and brunch Sunday at the AirBnb [with snacks of course]. Plus, mimosas at home are more relaxing and cheaper haha.
I’m glad we stayed at a hotel the first few times for the experience, but now I may be hooked on AirBnbs moving forward.
Why in the world do you fly that far for 3 days?
To spend a long weekend dancing in the desert with these beautiful faces! But truly, I love the desert, I love live music, and I love meeting my friends to spend this weekend together. Plus the free tickets don’t hurt 🙂 It’s become something we look forward to all year long and I love that it’s a tradition now.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by today. If you’re interested in coming to Splash House next year, or have any other questions, let me know!
xo, Maddy
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