Fest300 received word today that one of the festivals on our list and one of our personal favorites, Desert Hearts will not host the fall version of their popular Southern California event. Like many of you were were initially disappointed. With ballooning popularity and a cap at around 3,000 people Desert Hearts is a sought-after destination festival. As a biannual offering, if we missed the Spring event, there was a round two. Beyond a weekend of House, Techno and Love, Desert Hearts is a community and provides a special haven that allows attendees to be themselves completely, and like many of you, we crave that. 

We spoke to label boss and Desert Hearts crew member Mikey Lion about the decision to take a hiatus and it makes a lot of sense. After all a single annual festival is a huge amount of work but two festivals, a tour and a label are a lot to handle. Wisely, the Desert Hearts crew has elected to pace itself after an ambitious summer tour of spreading the House, Techno and Love message nationally. On Desert Hearts's Facebook Page, the crew writes “It’s been an incredible experience, and we have connected with people faster than we could ever have imagined. But it’s been non-stop. We haven’t had the chance to think about how we’re going to continue spreading our message in the right way, and how to deliver the best possible experiences to our community around the world. For these reasons we’ve made the difficult decision to take the Fall ‘16 Festival off this year. We want the Desert Hearts community to thrive for the rest of our lives and this means taking time to plan long-term and build the infrastructure necessary to make this happen.”

Mikey and his colleagues feel that their mission of spreading love requires them to put more energy into their summer tour to bring their unique vibe to places that don’t have the same festival options as the West Coast scene. While they wish to expand widely they aren’t forgetting their core constituents. In our conversation Mikey teased some home games event to honor the family and finish the season. "We're working on some really special events for our SoCal community in the Fall to keep the love flowing throughout the Winter. Trust us, we love our Desert Hearts Family and we aren't going anywhere."

We’ve seen many festivals take a well-timed break and return with a more sophisticated offering. We have no doubt that the folks of Desert Hearts will bring the fire in 2017.

Read the full Facebook post below.