Same Same But Different: And It Sure Was.
I have been going to festivals and concerts for the vast majority of my adult life. My first was Hard Summer 2015, over 11 years ago now – a thoroughly enjoyable experience with thoroughly enjoyable music and decently curated vibes, but my enjoyment primarily came from the connections I made with the people I went with, and it was retroactively improved in my memory by my reconnection with those friends seven years later at my first Lightning in a Bottle in 2022. I recently celebrated my FIFTH Lightning in a Bottle in May of this year, with that same group of friends and loved ones. What kept me coming back year after year? Not just the people, but also the atmosphere: I fell in love with all the little creative touches and installations that the show-runners had set up, the immersion of the staff in the program itself, and the emphasis on human connection and discovering something new about oneself or about the world every year and bringing it back home with you.
Every one of my five years at Lightning in a Bottle, I had heard, either in passing or in conversations with the friendliest of the strangers I met at the festival, that Same Same But Different was THE place to be. It felt like there was this invisible string pulling me towards Lake Perris every time I heard about it. This year I was fortunate enough to finally follow the string, along with my good friends Dominique, Jessi, Jimmy, Joely, and Andrew.
And let me tell you, SSBD did NOT disappoint.
First and foremost, the setting of Lake Perris provided an immense amount of natural beauty for us to soak in during the weekend. The water looked bright blue and serene against the sharp, striking backdrop of enormous beige mountains adorned with huge, hulking boulders in the distance. In addition to it being a full moon that weekend, the sunsets gifted to us by Mother Nature were absolutely breathtaking. Every. Single. Day. Whenever I wasn’t admiring the vibe of the festival, I found myself looking around dumbfounded at the natural beauty of the area we were in. I tip my hat to the location scouts – they found an incredible place to host this magical event.
As with most fests, the attendees and the showrunners are what cultivate the vibe – and SSBD brings a TON of creativity from larger-scale affairs like Burning Man, LiB, etc. into a fantastic introductory format for folks interested in transformational festival experiences but wary of large crowds. Jessi’s first camping festival experience was actually at last year’s SSBD – small wonder (pun intended) she came back for round 2. All of the thoughtful curation, uniquely silly installations, and creativity of the showrunners and guests alike that I had grown to love about Lightning in a Bottle were there, aided and abetted by SSBD’s official suggested costume themes of “Party Animal”, “Enchanted Forest”, and “Walmart at 3 am”. And because of the smaller scale, they were made exponentially more visible (dare I say meaningful?).
Everywhere you look there’s something unique that you haven’t seen before…
I saw a guest dressed in a bright orange construction uniform, tiny sunglasses on at night, proudly carrying a tiny, equally bright orange pumpkin with equally tiny sunglasses drawn on, walking through the crowd while staying in character by rambling nonsensically to anyone who approached him about nonexistent OSHA violations.
I saw a guest running at top speed between sets while balancing a plastic water bottle on his head, to raucous applause from observers.
I saw a man in a full wizard outfit in the dead of night pointing a walking stick he had found at his friends while shouting “I CAST… RAVING!!!”
There was an entire section of the festival called Grandma’s House filled with uniquely garbed guests having dance parties with empty suitcases and old VHS tapes (and yes, of course they also served tea there and had a back-room space with Lite Brites and sketch pads and endless amounts of old toys and trinkets).
My personal favorite zone as a musician? The Groove Grove, an enchanted forest area near the entrance that featured a bass, a guitar, keys, some mics, and a drum kit built right into the trees for jam sessions with strangers, complete with a central dance/flow circle and plenty of bongos to bang on. I found myself opining on how many bands and creative musical collaborations must have formed as a result of this incredible area – in fact, I myself exchanged info with a pianist and drummer from Texas after an amazing jam session, and we might be making a collaboration ourselves!
The VIP section of the festival featured all your standard VIP amenities and more: dedicated water stations, a VIP bar, bathrooms, chill spaces, and a small DJ stage, along with a committed VIP audience viewing area at the main stage that went all the way up to the front barricade for the best artist viewing experience possible. Oh, did I also mention they had FREE MASSAGES there??
I could go on for pages and pages about all the little things I noticed from the guests and the staff and the installations alike, but bottom line: the attention to detail, the unabashed silliness, the commitment to the bit amongst everyone involved, the encouragement of creativity, and the sheer FUN are all encapsulated in the festival layout, design, and programs. And the guests bring just as much creativity as the festival does – they work together and feed off one another’s energy in an indescribably beautiful way.
Not only that, but I bumped into NUMEROUS friends, old and new, from previous events I had attended throughout my 11 years of festival-going. It felt like this incredible transcendent secret that was being shared by 7,500 of the most lovely people I had ever met. So many folks already knew each other from their own corners of the world or their own prior fest experiences together, and the small size made those experiences exponentially more frequent as the weekend went on. This world really is that small, and SSBD proved that to me time and time again.
And this magical place is not reserved for adults only – throughout the day and the night, I saw just as many groups of college friends and young adults as I saw parents with their children and their furry friends meandering around and absorbing the vibe. The festival offers an entire kids’ section called the Family Garden (as if the installations in the main area of the festival weren’t designed to bring out all of our own inner children), complete with its own lineup and activities. Parents: while I suggest bringing a good pair of earmuffs, I can happily report that SSBD IS a family-friendly affair: the crowd, the size, and the vibe are all, like Goldilocks and many things about this festival, just right.
Not only that, but the provided amenities were like no other festival I had ever gone to. Perhaps that’s due to the intentional small scale that the showrunners adhere to, or perhaps it’s because the showrunners focus more on comfort and experience than profit. Whatever it was, all of us were the beneficiaries of their decisions.
Free showers at the campsites meant no one had to go stinky or dusty for longer than they wanted to. I never felt dehydrated because there was never an abhorrent line at the water stations, not to mention there was a “co-op” water station with virtually no line all weekend called the Friendship Faucet, which only functioned if both you and a friend pushed the buttons on either side of the installation. Porta-Potties were kept clean and well-stocked – they even provided urinals to keep lines down, a surprisingly rare amenity for festivals that (like many other things about this place) had me wondering why everyone doesn’t do it this way. And unreserved, free-for-all campsites meant we got to pick our own spots and create amazing shared campsites and bonds with our neighbors.
My dingy little 2001 Camry, Sylvia and I arrived at Lake Perris on Thursday afternoon pretty early in the day, around 1 pm – while I did hear from others in my group and others I met throughout the weekend about long lines for entry starting around 5 pm, my experience coming in felt smooth and painless. Staff were friendly and helpful despite the heat, and were stationed at nearly every turn to tell me where to go. We were in Quail Campground – thankfully, hunting for a large enough spot for my group only took about ten minutes that early on, and there was plenty of nice flat dirt to park and pitch a tent on (although I do highly recommend meticulousness with taking care of your food and food scraps – here there are anthills). I made quick friends with the new neighbors that showed up in the following hours before my own group arrived. They had actually stayed at the exact same spot last year and dubbed one of the trees at our site their “Spirit Tree” in 2025 – they were divinely friendly people, and were reasonable and understanding about sharing of space and resources just like the rest of the folks around us in the campsites.
The main stage and most of the festival grounds were still being constructed on Thursday night, but the Inner Space stage along with all of its food trucks, shops, and surrounding areas were open for business. I got to know a friendly man named Ja at the Third Eye Pinecones (@thirdeyepinecones) shop, heard the story of how Zoe, one of the shirt-printing artists (@the.afterlife.shop), found her passion and her trade, listened in to Hypho’s and Saturna’s sets, and admired the meticulous set design of the stage itself, built by the GOOD SOCIETY group (@goodsocietyla). I actually bumped into one of the folks who built the stage later in the weekend, yet another wonderful nod to the small-world vibe of SSBD. The Inner Space stage became an easy meetup spot once night fell, as it was small enough to navigate easily while also having plenty of landmarks to reference for your group. Ah, did I mention that LSDream also hosted an hour-long musical meditative experience there on Sunday called Lightcode? No spoilers, but I may or may not have cried cathartic joyful tears during this…
Friday was when the real festivities began. We went in around 4 pm to beat the heat of the day in the lake (make sure you pack plenty of sunscreen and clothes for swimming!!), but the festival grounds open far earlier than that. The lake is the front yard for Coconut Cove, a stage on the sand with a turquoise flowing fabric ceiling serving up grooves set perfectly for an all-day, all-night beach party. Artists like Peace Control, Danny Grisa, Ship Wrek, Twin Diplomacy, Mishell, Yamagucci, and MNTRA (a personal friend of mine; there’s that small world again) all set the vibe just right. Jessi and Jimmy split a “Tub O’ Fun” (a very literal tub of chicken tenders, waffle fries, and deep-fried pickles) available at one of the food vendors near Inner Space. I ran into some good friends (who I initially met through my drummer Brian) at the beach, and we got to schmooze for a while. I swam up and down the lake for a bit, soaking up the sun and the vibe, all the while observing and admiring all the creative, unique people in their elements and picking up on little tidbits of big laughs amongst endless wholesome, silly conversations.
From the beach we meandered over to the Creation Station, an area which thoroughly lived up to its name: as we entered into an opening ceremony (set to “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles, of course), we were greeted by frolicking masquerade-masked spirits dressed all in white gowns as well as their otherworldly friends from the “Different Planet”, only accessible by “hopping on a dolphin and riding it through the aethers, to the left hand of the moon, a tiny bit past Jupiter” (yes, this is a real actual quote from the host of the ceremony). Dozens of incredible sculpted artworks of four-eyed suns and cyclops moons, giant human-manned puppets of bright blue dragons, and people dressed in checkered conehead outfits all came out to say hello. Needless to say, many of these otherworldly creatures joined us on the dancefloor as the night and the weekend progressed – I personally got to greet both of the blue dragons in their full glory during LSDream’s set at the main stage (Same Stage) on Saturday.
From the Creation Station, we went to explore Butwood, a play on Hollywood and this year’s But Stage thematic area. Just like the Creation Station, Butwood hosts a variety of shows and interactive activities of all kinds. The Chapel of But had nightly karaoke and karaoke takeovers. The But Stage was home to one of my favorite new artist finds, Les Greene and the Swayzees, and to many of the other live-band acts that SSBD hosts every year alongside the DJ and electronic acts. The Butwood Cinema hosted, among many other things, one late-night event I attended called Dan’s Bingo, which features disheveled, silly suit-adorned host Dan and his co-host Bruce, who provides equally silly sound effects to Dan’s Bingo game (small-world occurrence: I had actually met Bruce the previous weekend at Destination Festival, a new microfest put on by the very same friends I did my first ever music festival with way back in 2015).
Beyond the endless creative touches and corners of Butwood and beyond, the main stage (Same Stage) was like no other stage I had ever seen before. Hundreds of lasers for electronic sets, dozens of rotating spotlights inlaid right into the wall, and no fewer than 108 (I counted) enormous, individually-programmed LED tube lights created a remarkable hexagonal-design light show that moved and grooved intricately to the beats of every artist we saw there. I personally saw Of The Trees, Steller, Vincent Antone, LSDream, Gramatik, Kasablanca, Koastle, Andy Frasco & the UN, and Tape B all give absolutely killer performances, not to mention most of them went out of their way to say how much they personally love playing SSBD. Their performances combined with the amazing stage design made the experience something I will not be forgetting any time soon.
And lest we forget, you can actually purchase a ferry pass to traverse Lake Perris and arrive at the distant land of Nakey Island, an extra area sitting right in the center of the lake complete with its own stage and lineup, its own chill creative space, its own Porta-Potties, and even its own chiropractor?? The space itself is modestly sized compared to the full island, but that didn’t stop me from having a blast and meeting plenty of new friends at the arts and crafts area in the chill space. I personally painted a small oil painting on canvas, and after realizing I had very little natural talent for oil on canvas, I decided to simply paint the scales of a pine cone I saw sitting on the ground instead. My group and I, along with some more friendly strangers who, it turns out are close friends with one of my housemates’ cousins, affectionately named my pinecone “Coney McPineface” and cheered his name to the heavens on the ferry ride back from the island. Coney still sits proudly in my room in his multicolored glory as I write this post, yet another fond memory of an unforgettable weekend.
We all found ourselves enamored with the festival shops and the people manning them as well. Joely and her boyfriend Andrew purchased a beautiful piece of art for their new house, and at a modest price! Jessi got amazing colorful braids done by JBraidsz (@_jbraidsz_), one of the stalls near Coconut Cove. I finally invested in my first Flow Toy, a pair of LED Pod Poi, which I have been attached at the hip to since returning home. Were money less of an object, I would have collected up numerous other amazing artworks, necklaces, jewelry, and other fun items for sale at the SSBD shops. Just another nod to the creativity of everyone there: the vendors, the staff, and the guests all intertwine and create such incredible things together.
By the time Monday rolled around, and it was time for us to leave this enchanted liminal space, I found myself reeling from all the amazing things I had experienced over the weekend. The lovely new friends I had made, the creativity and uniqueness I had observed in every guest and staff member and artist, the amount of small-world occurrences I got to experience and bear witness to, the conspicuous and almost absolute lack of bad-vibe individuals, and the lessons I learned about how to live a joyful life all stick with me to this day and will continue to do so for years to come…
…at least until next year rolls around and I get to do it all again. And I WILL be doing it all again. And again, and again.
General ticket sales begin next Spring – my recommendation is to get ‘em while they’re hot, because this is not a festival experience you’ll want to miss. If you make it to the Lake, keep an eye out for a dude with a pair of pod poi and a multicolored pinecone named Coney McPineface – he and I will be more than happy to greet you.
For more festival photos, view our galleries.