When the madness of Coachella descends on the desert, local music lovers can enjoy Sideshows—concerts that take place during, between, and after the Coachella weekends.
The latest sideshow to hit the Coachella weekends is Goldenvoice Surf Club, a rebrand of Day Club—and this year, the venue, fittingly, is the new Palm Springs Surf Club. During the Saturdays and Sundays of Coachella weekends, attendees can catch performances by Bicep (DJ set), Barry Can’t Swim, salute, Mia Moretti and more during the opening weekend; and Skream back-to-back with Benga, Mall Grab back-to-back with Skin on Skin, Kettama back-to-back with Partiboi69, Dylan Brady, JUNGLE (DJ set), Neil Frances (DJ set) and Juliet Mendoza during on the second weekend.
During a recent phone interview with Goldenvoice Surf Club talent buyer, Becky Rosen-Cheka, she explained how Day Club transformed into Surf Club.
“We’ve done an iteration of this event in the past at the Hilton, which was great, but we’ve heard buzz about the surf club,” she said. “Tyler McLean (of Splash House), who I work with, is very involved with what’s going on in Palm Springs. … We thought, “We’ve done this with festival-level talent at the Hilton, but what could make it even better?” Water slides and a wave pool and surfing sounds pretty fun. … It seemed like a great concept and they have an amphitheater outside, so it just seems so perfectly set up to have a live performance with the amenities they already have there.”
Fans should keep their fingers crossed that all the amenities at the Palm Springs Surf Club work for these events, including the wave pool, the park’s main attraction. According to the GV Surf Club website: “Your pass gives you access to park features including the Music Amphitheater, Main Pool, Lazy River, Amala Restaurant and Island Bar. For those looking for a bigger thrill, access to the water slides is available by purchasing an additional $20 pass at the venue.
Shortly after opening in the new year, the PSCC announced that the wave pool was closed due to “technical challenges”. At the time of writing, it remains closed. This was announced by the organizers of the Goldenvoice surf club Independent that “sessions will be advertised and booked through the Palm Springs Surf Club website,” but no reservations were available at the time of this story’s publication.
A while back—before the wave pool issue—I toured the park with developer Timothy O’Byrne.
“As we conceived this and built everything, one of the big things we realized that really piqued our interest wasn’t just surfing,” he said. “For us, surfing is a beautiful, wonderful piece of the puzzle, but only a piece. The water slides, the lazy river, the adult pool, all the meeting places, the different restaurants and (food and beverage) that we have, we really think that’s where a lot of the attraction is going to come from. Being able to be part of a community where everyone can come and have fun, from kids to adults to pro surfers to beginner surfers – that was our vision, so that’s what we jumped on.”
“Tyler McLean (of Splash House), who I work with, is very involved with what’s going on in Palm Springs. … We thought, ‘We’ve done this with festival-level talent at the Hilton, but what could make it even better?’
Goldenvoice Surf Club Talent Buyer Becky Rosen-Cheka
The Palm Springs Surf Club’s ability to host concerts along with water entertainment has led to a promising relationship between the park and Goldenvoice.
“We’re working on a bunch of things there,” Rosen-Cheka said. “The quickest thing we’re going to do (after Goldenvoice Surf Club) is we’re going to do some programming during Stagecoach. … I believe there are some other things that other buyers are working on, but we definitely want to continue to book stuff there. It’s a really cool and unique space and the fact that it also lends itself to live music is really cool.”
When I toured the surf club in January, I looked at both the amphitheater area and another space where an event hall is slated to be built.
“We’re really excited to have created this beautiful area,” O’Byrne said. “It’s going to be a great entertainment venue for Palm Springs, whether it’s speeches, lectures, concerts, whatever. We think it’s great to have all these variations in one place, especially when surfing happens in the background.”
Rosen-Checa credits Splash House’s McLean with pitching Goldenvoice ideas on ways to expand programming in the Coachella Valley.
“He brought us some of these ideas like the Air Museum (in Palm Springs) and the Surf Club,” Rosen-Cheka said. “Obviously we’ve done Coachella forever, but I think it’s really cool that Palm Springs is becoming a destination for electronic music. I feel like it’s kind of exploded more and more over the last few years – and who doesn’t love going to Palm Springs? If there’s cool music in cool venues, I think that makes it even more attractive. I’m looking for any reason to get out of LA and go there.
Rosen-Checa said even more Goldenvoice events could be coming to the Valley.
“There are so many great opportunities that have yet to be fully exploited,” she said. “All of the Goldenvoice stuff that we do there is very unconventional … Being able to do this where it still feels like (Angelenos are) getting out of the city but close enough that it could easily just be a day trip is really unique.”
Goldenvoice hopes to deepen this relationship by making ticket prices reasonable. Admission to Goldenvoice Surf Club starts at $40, excluding fees, for a one-day pass.
“We all know how much festival tickets cost, and they’re usually a lot, and that’s unavoidable for the most part,” Rosen-Cheka said. “We really liked that we could make this work with a cheaper ticket.”
O’Byrne told me in January that he and his fellow Palm Springs Surf Club managers are excited to see what comes of the place.
“We take the philosophy that we want this to have its own beat, and then let the community decide what that beat is,” O’Byrne said. “We’re just excited to get people together here and let them start telling us what they think this should be and how we should direct it.” We’ve really tried to maximize the opportunity for the park to have its own soul and its own life, and we’re going to let the community tell us what that is, rather than us trying to just tell the community. I’m just excited to see how this develops and is embraced by the community.”
For tickets and more information visit gvsurfclub.com
