Desert Hearts Festival Brings The Funk With House, Techno And Love – Forbes
Desert Hearts.
Jess Bernstein.
House, techno and love: The foundations that imprint and brand Desert Hearts is founded on. Aside from spinning techno and house, the community exudes love, whether it’s for people from different walks of life, similar ethos, those still finding themselves and more.
I’m an attendee of previous Desert Heart events, but this year was my first time attending their festival. While there, I found something I had never found before. I’ve gone to my fair share of music festivals in my day, but I’ve never been surrounded by a community so rooted in love, understanding, kindness, freeness, positivity, acceptingness and more. There was something different in the air that is incomparable to other events.
Here, two of the Desert Hearts founders, Mikey Lion and Marbs—Lee Reynolds and Porky are the other two founders—share with Forbes how they describe the brand in three words, how the festival has changed over their years, their favorite thing of being part of the Desert Hearts family and more.
Lisa Kocay: Can you describe Desert Hearts in three words?
Mikey Lion: “Family, love, freedom of expression.”
Marbs: “Conscious, community, intention.”
Kocay: Can you elaborate more on what intention means?
Marbs: “I think people come here to explore their minds and explore what life can be outside of the normal grind. I think people leave with this idea that these experiences and the connections that they have with people don’t have to live just in [this] experience, [but] can be taken home, passed on and rippled out in our day-to-day lives.”
Kocay: How has Desert Hearts changed over the years?
Mikey Lion: “Well, it started as a 200 person little gathering in the [Mojave], and it just organically grew into a festival. We never intended for it to be a festival or had intentions of creating something this big when we first started it. It kind of developed its own personality, following and community around it, that we felt responsible to keep it going because it was just…the most beautiful thing that we’ve ever been a part of. So over the years it went from being a renegade party to being held on private land in Apple Valley, an Indian reservation at La Jolla, back to Apple Valley [and] then to Los Coyotes Indian reservation. And now in its 10th year, [we’re] here at Lake Perris.
“We just knew after the pandemic and this three year break that we were on that we needed to move in a new direction and find somewhere that we could grow that our family would really appreciate. And when we found this venue—everything just clicked.”
Marbs: “It seems like the universe has reflected it back to us. I think it’s attracted a wide range of amazing individuals. The demographic is so special and so widespread, as far as people from all walks of life. And it kind of turns into a magnet every year—we get blown away at how many more creative and conscious people come here to experience what everyone’s experiencing. And it just seems to be its own organism. The community has become so strong and powerful. It’s the backbone to this whole thing, and seeing a community grow year after year and just making people enjoy their life, then seeing them outside of the festival, running into them in town and hearing how much it has impacted their wellbeing and the way they look at the world—that’s the real ticket for me.
“We’re all music heads and we’re deejays, and that’s where it started. But the stories of people coming out to their families about their sexuality, quitting hard drugs and kicking their addictions, finding their wife and all those stories that happened around Desert Hearts, that’s really what we think we’re doing and what we hope we’re doing: spreading positivity and impacting the world in a positive manner, even if it is on a [small] scale. We think it all starts with the individual. So if each individual is getting better in becoming a better version of themselves through positive experiences, that’s a small chip away at making the world a better place. I think that’s what it’s evolved into.”
From left to right: Porky, Mikey Lion, Lee Reynolds and Marbs.
Peter Speyer.
Kocay: So far this year for the festival, what have been some of your favorite memories?
Marbs: “I’m heavily involved in the logistics. I always have been. So for the lead up to the festival in the first week, while we’re setting up, I’m very pulled in a lot of directions. So there’s always a moment where I get to step out of that and transition into settling into the experience. And on Thursday night, when we had the beach stage going on, my really good friend Evan Casey, whom I do Desert Hearts Black [with], had his set. And earlier this year during the pandemic, we made an EP where our good friend Katie [Kilbride] sang on vocals. She came up on stage during [Casey’s] set, and we planned to do live vocals with her. So we had this moment of me helping her on the voice transformer, running the reverb and all this stuff for her vocals.
“And she was singing while [Casey] was playing and it was that moment for me. It was like, ‘Oh man, we came out of the pandemic. This is something we created during it. And now we’ve waited three years to be back at Desert Hearts.’ I’m getting to have this experience with them performing music that we created with a friend who’s singing live for the first time on stage. It was a super special moment for all of us, I think. And then on Friday when the Heart Stage turned on, I got in the booth, and this is such a big venue. We didn’t know if it was [going to] feel full or what—it’s just so massive. When I got in the booth and I saw the view from the booth, I had tears in my eyes. It was the moment that I had been missing and dreaming of this whole time that we’ve been away. It was really special and an affirmation of all the hard work that we have done.”
Kocay: Over the past years, what have been some of your favorite memories?
Mikey Lion: “The very first sunrise set that we had at Desert Hearts was when it was even just a little 200 person renegade in the Mojave. That was one of my very favorite moments because it was like that moment of triumph. I think every time that we make it through the night at Desert Hearts and into the next day, there is that moment of glory where everyone’s on the same wavelength. The family’s just feeling completely connected to one another. And we’re watching the sunrise together while we’re listening to music, all dancing to the same beat. It’s very tribalistic and it feels completely right with being a human being.”
Kocay: What’s on your essential packing list for Desert Hearts?
Mikey Lion: “Definitely wild and crazy costumes. I think fashion and freedom of expression is a huge part of our festival. Whether it’s art, whether it’s fashion or just any other type of way that expresses yourself, it’s something that we’ve always encouraged here. So bringing your best festival gear is definitely a must.”
Marbs: “Multiple pairs of shoes. Your feet will hurt, [so] switch those things out. Making sure you have some things that make you feel at home. I stay in an RV, but we’ll bring some of our crystals. We’ll decorate it out and make sure that when you go back home after partying and having fun that you have a safe space that makes you feel kind of centered and collected.
“You need to make sure when you’re resting that you have the things to make your body heal while you’re resting. Clothes for all weather—we’ve had the hottest of days, snow [and] hail.”
Kocay: What’s the best thing about being part of the Desert Hearts family?
Marbs: “Desert Hearts has impacted my life. I do it with my best friends. I’ve found a way to have a living and have purpose in my life with the people that I love. What else can I ask for? That’s what I think we’re all looking for, is to find a way to be sustainable and happy where work doesn’t feel like work. This is not work at all. At the end of the day, this is my life and my soul. So to be able to be surrounded by the people that I love and creating something like this, I’m just so grateful that my path led me to [this.]”
Mikey Lion: “Desert Hearts has given me my entire life. My brother is a partner. My wife, [whom] I’ve been with for 10 years. Our entire friend group is rooted in Desert Hearts. Pretty much everyone I know is in some way involved in Desert Hearts at this point. It’s something that has given so much purpose to my life and so much purpose to so many people here. I think humans are tribalistic by nature and for a lot of people, the tribe that they find is like their sports team or something that they feel a part of.
“I think that that’s my favorite part is that we’re all coming together with this common goal of creating love and spreading that positive energy and that goal of becoming the best versions of ourselves. It’s truly incredible to me.”
