The A-Z of My Favorite Travel Destinations — Desert Trip

Modern Day Woodstock Rock Festival was both a destination and an event.

Think Modern Day Woodstock with Rock and Roll over six days, with communal camping, great music, unbelievably good food, and perfect weather — it doesn’t get any better.

I was struggling to find a letter D destination. My two countries were Denmark and the Dominican Republic, both great places. But these were a long time ago and once again the pictures were lost to past disasters.

I was almost ready to resort to “Disneyland” when I came across the Desert Trip pictures, and I thought to myself — the letter “D” finally.

Desert Trip was held in the California High Desert on a Polo field not far from Palm Springs. The organizers were the same people who produce the annual Coachella music festival. But Desert Trip was special, and so far, even after six years hasn’t been repeated. I keep hoping there will be another.

It was dubbed “OldChella” both because of the age of the performers and the expected age of attendees.

People came from all over the world, and tickets were selling out fast. Not in Days, not even in hours, but in minutes. I was lucky to get tickets and spent hours on the website trying. They were released in batches and in a few minutes were gone, with the website constantly crashing.

They were also expensive. Our tickets for the six-day event were $1,200 each. Certainly, the most I ever paid for any event, but it was worth every penny and we had great seats. Most attendees were standing, but we did have reserved seats for the entire time.

Quote from the Desert Sun:

He started explaining his concept of presenting six bands who were vital to the launch of classic rock and were still creative, working bands 50 years later. The Rolling Stones’ manager, Joyce Smyth, got him a meeting with Mick Jagger in his dressing room after a concert in Buenos Aires. Tollett laid out his plan and Jagger made his now well-circulated remark, “You mean it’s like Coachella for old people?”

By the time I finally got two tickets, the hotels nearby were filling up and what few rooms were left were going for triple the normal price. I opted to do the communal car camping and it turned out great.

We interacted with our nearby campers, who were literally an arm's length from us. We shared food, they offered to share their marijuana. Since both Junior and I worked for the government and were subject to urinalysis testing, we had to politely decline.

But joints were passed around the entire time adding to the Woodstock feel. My son and I bonded more on this trip than we had in years. It was fantastic. We had a 10 foot by 30 foot space and we set up our own soft-sided Xanadu. There were VW Vans everywhere. I was impressed with the creative use people applied to their small 10 by 30 foot real estate. We had a blast.

We could walk to the events without dealing with traffic and parking, I think that made car camping a much better choice. They had hot showers and nice bathrooms, shopping, and food everywhere.

Performances were epic, Mick Jagger strutted across the stage like he was still twenty years old. Bob Dylan’s voice was as soulful as ever, and Roger Waters bashed Trump to a combination of boos and cheers, mostly cheers. The Who played Pinball Wizard as I’ve never heard it before, and Neil Young played my favorite song, “Harvest Moon” with so many other great hits. Sir Paul McCartney, is still as good as ever, banging the white ivory keys like never before.

Keep in mind Mick Jagger was 73 at the time of this event, now 79. And all the other performers are up there, but you couldn’t tell from the energy on that stage. Besides the headliners, there were bands playing from two stages constantly the entire time. You couldn’t be in two places at the same time and frequently had to make a choice.

Quote from Outstanding in the field home page:

“Traditional restaurants source ingredients for their menus; we bring our kitchen right to the source — setting our long table in fields, orchards, and along the seashores where the meal’s ingredients were harvested. Our aim is to reconnect diners to the land while celebrating the hardworking hands that feed us.”

We had a four-course dinner one night with an organization called “Outstanding in the field”. They serve gourmet food and wine, always outdoors and always on one long communal table. The table snaked around the field with at least 100 in attendance each night. Our Chef was a famous LA chef, each night they had a different menu and different Chef.

Desert Trip provided food from 100 vendors serving everything from wood-fired pizza and hand-crafted burgers to authentic street tacos and fresh-from-the-wok pad thai.

A beer garden with more craft beers than you can imagine, the best wineries were present, and a vinyl record store where my son spent hours. Even the bathrooms were special.

No outhouses for the Desert trip, they were air-conditioned trailers with piped-in sound, artwork, and finishes of marble, brass, and wood paneling. A bathroom you would expect to find in the lobby of a nice hotel.

I loved everything about this destination event, the music, food, car camping, and most of all bonding with my son, in a way we hadn’t done in years.

Thanks for reading about my “D” destination/event.

Below are the letter “D” destinations for Sam Millichap, Anne Bonfert, and Adrienne Beaumont, who are participating in the A-Z Challenge, and I’ve included Jerry Dwyer’s latest “B” Destination.