Splash House to return for only two weekends in August 2024

Get ready for more fun in the sun, because the electronic music festival Splash House is returning to Palm Springs this summer.

In 2022, the event expanded from two weekends to three and sold 21,000 tickets, but this year's event is scheduled for only two weekends.

Splash House returns Aug. 9-11 and Aug. 16-18 at the Renaissance, Margaritaville Resort and Saguaro Palm Springs hotels with After Hours programming at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Lineups for both weekends are TBA.

What is Splash House?

Splash House is Palm Springs' largest summer concert, and draws thousands of attendees during the slowest and hottest months of the year. Each weekend features prominent names in dance music performing poolside while festivalgoers take a dip, dance in front of the stage areas or watch from their decorated hotel room balconies.

In 2023, the festival celebrated its 10th anniversary over three weekends, and highlights included ODESZA, Armand Van Helden, Chromeo, Purple Disco Machine and more.

How to get passes

For those hoping to attend, registration is open for presale on Thursday, Feb. 8 at splashhouse.com. Hotel packages will be available, allowing guests to enjoy the amenities of the three host hotels while enjoying the festival. Packages include festival passes, a three-night stay and shuttle transportation between venues.

The festival celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2023

Cofounded in 2013 by Palm Springs residents Tyler and Kelly McLean, the Palm Springs City Council honored the festival last August with a "Splash House Day."

During the event at the Renaissance, Palm Springs councilmember Grace Garner, who was mayor at the time, said she has known Tyler McLean and his family since she was 11 years old, and when she heard about the first event a decade ago, said "This is definitely a McLean family event."

"It's really exciting to see how much it's grown and what a wonderful partner Tyler and his team have been to the city," Garner said. "Splash House has brought a lively and youthful nature to Palm Springs over the years. It's a place where fashionistas post poolside, colorful floaties cascade across the crowd and balconies are decorated to a tee supporting comedic signs and the event's signature tongue-in-cheek attitude. Splash House has developed a boutique festival experienced with ahead-of-its-time music curation and a devout fan community."

The third weekend went on as planned despite Tropical Storm Hilary arriving on the final day of the festivities. Earlier in the weekend, the festival announced it was prepared to move inside at the three hotels where it's held, which organizers were forced to do as major rain and wind gusts rolled into the desert.

"We're gonna keep it real with you — we're not big fans of today's projected weather," organizers wrote in an Instagram post as the storm was moving in. "But we are big fans of keeping this party going safely. Let's take things inside and close out this weekend in unprecedented style!"

Although Splash House has become a prominent music festival, it didn't seem destined for success when the first edition was proposed in 2013.

“It takes a certain naivety to dive into producing music festivals without any background in them. I learned a lot of hard lessons along the way that first year, but really believed in it,” McLean said in 2023.

During the early 2010s, Palm Springs was quiet during the summer. The revitalization project in the downtown area was in the beginning stages, tourism ground to a halt and most local businesses would shut down until the fall. But McLean and his sister Kelly were certain a summer music festival in Palm Springs could work.

“No one felt like there was hope for anyone to come out here when it was 115 degrees," McLean said in 2023. "I said ‘We can do that, I think we can not only get young people out here but we can do something that people need the most.’ That’s where the impetus of creating Splash House came from.”

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Splash House to return for only two weekends in August 2024