Splash House Felt Like Home
During the past two warm weekends of August, the beautiful desert of Palm Springs became the headquarters for house music lovers from all over. Splashing down for the 11th year, Splash House made an epic two part return with stacked lineups at all four of its famous venues. August 9-11 kicked off opening weekend and then August 16-18 closed out the poolside parties. After attending weekend two. I am extremely sad this experience is over. I truly believe that Splash House is one of the most unique and most enjoyable festivals I have ever been to! The love for house music was so present at each stage, and the festival felt like a big family that I want to be a part of every Summer!
We arrived at our Air BnB in Palm Springs Friday evening and started getting ready for the after hours party at the air museum. Splash House hosts after hours parties Friday and Saturday while the pool parties are Saturday and Sunday. Starting the weekend off at the air museum was something so surreal. This massive airplane hanger is transformed into a music venue with the stage at the nose of a giant airplane. The airplane was set up with the brightest lasers that made for the coolest light show I have seen in a long time! We saw the infamous John Summit night one along with Gudfulla and Dombresky night two. The air museum is a MUST when attending Splash House, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Moving on to the daytime activities! Splash House hosts its pool parties at three different resorts in Palm Springs. They provide free shuttles for attendees which makes it easy to hop around from stage to stage. The biggest resort we went to was called the Renaissance. This resort was a desert oasis with pristine pools and a large stage setup including elevated VIP tables. There were huge fans spraying mist which also made the heat more tolerable. Sounds from Biscits, Chris Lorenzo, and Meduza were my favorites from this stage. When the pool party ended around 9 pm we followed some friends up to the hotel rooms and this was one of my favorite parts of the weekend! The best time was roaming the resort halls and hopping from room to room to find different parties. Each room had its own DJ setup and a fun theme! One of the rooms had decorated the whole room as a large cloud with neon lights and this created such a fun vibe. It was very easy to make new friends as we just walked into any room that had their door open and everyone was so welcoming!
Margaritaville Resort was the next venue we attended and this one was honestly my favorite! The set up with the pool next to the stage made a super sick splash zone for ravers to jump in the pool on the beat drop. I really enjoyed the leafy jungle aesthetic of the stage and its surroundings, as it really gave the place an island vibe. Bijou was by far the best set at this stage as he displayed epic visuals on the big screen, combined with some unreleased music and classic house bangers.
Saguaro is the last resort where the pool parties are hosted. This one was very colorful and had the most creative balcony decorations. Groups staying in the hotel rooms would decorate their balconies in hopes of winning the balcony contest! This pool was smaller and less busy than the other resorts which was nice because we spent time in the water making new friends.
Overall, Splash House was very well put together and catered very well to its attendees. I was worried about over-heating and also getting dehydrated but there were water stations at every stage that were easily accessible in addition to lots of shade making for optimal dancing space! If you like house music I would highly recommend this festival! With the combination of pools and some of the best house music I’ve ever heard, this made for the best weekend! Hope to see everyone back in Palm Springs next year!