Every Memorial Day weekend for the past 6 years, SPLENDID SUN PRODUCTIONS out of Austin,
Texas puts on a two-day music festival in downtown El Paso called “Neon Desert Music Festival”.
This year, the 7th, was the best to date – encompassing 15 city blocks, 5 stages, 40 national acts
and 10 local acts. Both days sold out…contributing to the record turnout of 40K attendees.
I‘ve never been a fan of EDM or Hip- Hop, and that’s what Neon Desert is about. So needless to say,
I had no clue what was going on or who most of these acts were -- although I had heard of FOSTER
THE PEOPLE, SNOW THA PRODUCT and NELLY. Truth be told, this lack of familiarity made me feel
old, but literally thousands DID know each act that took the various stages that were set up for the
event. And as soon as one performance ended, they all high-tailed it to the next stage blocks away
to revel in it all over again.
As I stood at the foot of this particular stage waiting, there must have been 10 thousand people
behind me, crushing each other to get just two more inches to the stage. As is usually the case,
fights broke out, but were handled by security in rapid time. There were even girls fainting, having
to be pulled over the barricade. All of this reminded me of the 70’s at a Rolling Stones show.
However, this time (and at this age), I was just glad to be on the other side of the barricade.
Despite all of that frantic activity, as soon as one of these huge nationals hit the stage, the
atmosphere shifted -- as if you just flipped a switch to “Party Central”…and concert-goers were
having the time of their lives! Note to self: To hang with this crowd, apparently it is a pre-requisite
to refer to each other as “M/F-ers”…go figure.
I had never been immersed in the genre of Hip Hop like I was during those two days. Acts like
MICHAEL CHRISTMAS, TRAE THE TRUTH, LIL UZI, SNOW THA PRODUCT and NELLY really impressed
me, providing great performances, and in my opinion, stand-out entertainment. J. BALVIN, a
Colombian rapper, had this Latin crowd on its feet. I stood in awe at the enthusiastic reaction,
watching this all unfold -- and wondered how it was that I had never heard of this guy?
I did have the opportunity to do a photoshoot backstage with DLD, a Hispanic rock band straight
out of Mexico that has twice been nominated for a Grammy. It was a real pleasure hanging out with
them a half hour before show time. Their performance was a testament to why they are so popular
with the Latin crowd in attendance – and beyond. They delivered straight-up rock, however, all
performed in Spanish. I was impressed to my very core.
Two stand-outs for me were FOSTER THE PEOPLE and TY SEGALL -- and if it hadn’t been for the
sound guy at this one stage, I would have missed Ty Segall, the only Garage Rock band on the
bill…killer stuff, really!
All in all, I had a great time, having spent 24 hours on site, clicking off 1700 images. I do look
forward to next year, as I have been told via an email that Splendid Sun Productions looks forward
to working with ION Indie Magazine again. This experience has opened my eyes to other types of
music and those performers -- thanks to Neon Desert!
www.neondesertmusicfestival.com • www.facebook.com/neondesert