While people were driving into the desert over the weekend to enjoy the music at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, another dance party sounded off just a few freeway exits away.
The Goldenvoice Surf Club event at the Surf Club Palm Springs marks the promoter’s new day event that features a wave simulator, water slides, and a lazy river that circles a swimming pool. In addition, the event featured performances by Bicep (DJ Set), Barry Can’t Swim, salute, Mia Moretti and will feature Jungle, Neil Frances and Juliet Mendoza next weekend, April 20-21. The music acts at the day party are also performing at Coachella, which gives fans a piece of the action.
“We want people to enjoy themselves and have a good time,” said Tyler McLean, Goldenvoice’s lead producer of Surf Club. “For a lot of people this is going to be the first time and uniquely captures the essence of Palm Springs. When you’re in the desert, you don’t really want to be inside especially when you’re watching music acts. This is an amazing environment to experience music next to the waves, under the mountains and the palm trees.”
The surf club, formerly known as the Wet n’ Wild Park, was approved for renovations in 2019 and cost about $80 million to become the current iteration of the property. It opened in January and shut down after 10 days due to technical issues but it reopened just in time for the Goldenvoice event
“With the property opening, it was the opportunity to reinvent what we were doing,” McLean said. “The Palm Springs Surf Club is a really exciting and incredible addition to Palm Springs, not just as a surfing destination, but an all-encompassing entertainment resort destination that is a great canvas for music.”
The Goldenvoice produced-Surf Club is part of the numerous Coachella pre-parties centered on hotel pools that have been part of the Coachella-adjacent events throughout the area in the past several years. Other events have included Desert Gold, which takes over the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs and Day Club, which didn’t return this year. These events offer festival ticketholders a chance to pre-party and cool off before the big event and offer more affordable options for locals to experience.
Alejandra Ruiz and Daisy Serrano of Cathedral City bought tickets to the event when they heard live music and DJ sets would be hosted close to home.
“I’ve been to Coachella the last couple of years, and it’s been fun, but I didn’t feel it this year,” Ruiz said. “It felt weird not doing anything knowing (the festival) is happening so close by, but this was something new I knew my friends and I would still have a good time at.”
“I like pool parties,” Serrano added. “They remind me of the resort parties we go to in Mexico when I’ve gone out there with my family and friends.”
McLean said that he’s excited to add something new to the offsite Coachella events that aren’t so focused on the pool aspect. The surf club also includes programming such as morning yoga and specialty food and drink menus served at the casual fine dining restaurant and bar, the Amala. Along with their regular dishes the Surf Club featured menu items specifically for the event such as the House Poke ($24), Pastrami Paninis ($21) and Carne Asada Fries ($26) and cocktails such as The Surfside, Electro Lit and the 818 Pure Marg for $15 each.
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For fans Jamal Williams and Britney Jones, just being able to relax for the weekend under a cabana by the pools and floating down the lazy river after tasting the specialty cocktails was enough for them to consider coming back.
“It’s not that I don’t like the music but its sort of the background for us to just come and relax,” Jones said. “I think the DJ sets are good but I’d like to see different kinds of music. I think that would really make it pop and give people not going to (Coachella) an exclusive place to be.”