Music festivals within driving distance of L.A.

On the outskirts of town at the Motor Speedway, Electric Daisy Carnival is pure, condensed Vegas. There is a VIP Ferris wheel. Helicopters shuttle in high rollers. The 135,000-strong crowd is soaked in ecstasy and spray tan. Every millionaire DJ that plays the laser-riddled nightclubs on the Strip is here. EDC introduced EDM as a Day-Glo spectacle for the masses in America, and its lineups in recent years have certainly lived up to the hype (Tiësto, David Guetta, John Summit, FISHER, Kaskade, Diplo, Deadmau5, Peggy Gou play this year’s fest). Once you let the neon and bass wash over you, it is the time of your life.

Make your way to the desert for the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a gathering of like-minded indie musicians who will be rocking out to a dance-world-electro-funk’n groove. The biannual festival is a four-day party with over 30 bands in a unique lineup of artists who aren’t necessarily household names. There’s free water to all patrons, minimal service charges on tickets and yoga classes aplenty.

After years on the Central Coast, the annual event has more recently made a move significantly closer to L.A., at Bakersfield’s Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area. Sure, it’s still a bit of a trek, but where else can you find a sustainable, vegetarian festival dedicated to equal parts music, food, art, yoga and wellness? Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake and M.I.A. top the 2024 lineup.

This weekend-long concert will once again return to West Hollywood Park as part of WeHo Pride. Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monáe and Diplo headline this year’s fest with additional sets from Doechii, Ashnikko, Noah Cyrus, Trixie Mattel, Keke Palmer, Channel Tres, Yaeji, Big Freedia, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, VINCINT and more.

The long-running L.A. Pride has left West Hollywood for destinations farther east, including for this music festival on the edge of Chinatown. There’s no lineup yet for this year’s edition (Megan Thee Stallion and Mariah Carey headlined last year’s) but the Christopher Street West-produced concert will once again set up at L.A. State Historic Park on June 8, with all sorts of other LGBTQ+ programming between sets.

As Coachella has become increasingly pop-friendly, promoter Goldenvoice has made it up to aging locals with more and more genre-focused music festivals with stellar lineups. The latest such case: No Values, a fest filled with punk legends you’re almost sure to find in Gen X’ers T-shirt drawer. The Original Misfits, Social Distortion, Iggy Pop, Turnstile, Bad Religion and Sublime top the lineup for the June 8 show at Fairplax in Pomona, with additional sets from the Dillinger Escape Plan, Power Trip, the Damned, Joyce Manor, Suicidal Tendencies, the Vandals, Black Flag, the Jesus Lizard, L7, the Dead Milkmen and more.

House music hits the Queen Mary waterfront during this two-day fest. Though the 2024 lineup is still to come, last year’s edition of the multi-stage event featured the likes of Dombresky, Duke Dumont and Dom Dolla.

Though it’s a seated, single-stage concert, we think the deep lineup and alfresco, BYO setting of this show merit its inclusion here: The Roots headline this hip-hop fest at the Hollywood Bowl, which boasts the likes of Queen Latifah, Common, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, the Pharcyde and Black Sheep.

EDM juggernaut HARD Summer has hopped around Southern California in recent years, and last year returned to L.A. proper—and for 2024 now heads to the grounds of Hollywood Park, next to SoFi Stadium. No matter the location, its dedication to bringing the biggest names in the hip-hop and electronic scene has stayed the course. This year’s lineup includes Disclosure, FISHER + Chris Lake: Under Construction, Nelly Furtado, REZZMAU5, Major Lazer, Jamie xx, Subtronics, Zeds Dead and more.

Say goodbye to dusty thoroughfares and violent porta-potties: Splash House takes the music festival concept off of sweltering desert land and places it poolside. Movers and shakers at this multi-location getdown are shuttled between the Saguaro, the Margaritaville and the Renaissance (with after-hours programming at the Palm Springs Air Museum) to lap up big-name dance acts and DJ sets. With the added comforts of AC rooms and critically acclaimed restaurant fare just steps away from the party scenes, the experience will make you question whether to bother with more punishing locales come next year’s festival season.