Becca Kelly has never seen DJ and record producer Skrillex perform. She’s never seen Calvin Harris or Swedish House Mafia either. These three EDM artists on the same lineup were reason enough, she said, to fly from her home city of Boston to Palm Springs for the Head Trip music festival.
The Desert Sun spoke to three EDM fans making the trip for the festival, scheduled for Oct. 10 and 11 at the Empire Polo Club (the home of Coachella), to learn why the high ticket price was worth it.
A blend of old and new EDM favorites
Kelly, 33, got into electronic music in college between 2012 and 2016 when Skrillex, Harris and Swedish House Mafia ruled festival stages. Her tastes have changed since then, but when the lineup for Goldenvoice's one-off EDM festival dropped in March, she saw both
eras of her fandom on one bill.
“It felt like a meeting of my former electronic music self and my current electronic music self, which felt very serendipitous,” Kelly said.
Kelly and her fiancé, Taylor Jordan, have attended festivals such as Boston Calling and Proper NYE in San Diego. However, she has never attended Coachella, and would be interested despite its "influencer festival" reputation.
Douglas Tavares, 35, of Phoenix, has attended the past 10 Coachella festivals and will attend the April 2027 event. He's also gone to EDM-specific festivals such as Electric Daisy Carnival in 2010 — when it was still in Los Angeles — and Ultra's flagship festival in Miami. He’ll return to Indio for Head Trip with his wife and 15 friends.
“The opportunity to go back to a place I’m very fond of and go see a bunch of artists that I really like, and have that big trip kind of feeling around Coachella at the halfway point between this year and next year was a really exciting proposition,” Tavares said.
When describing the environment of an electronic dance music festival, Tavares said, “It’s more than just a concert, it really is an experience.”
Coming with three friends from Wichita, Kansas, is Hunter Flax, 23, who has attended EDM festival Decadence in Denver and hip-hop festival Rolling Loud (which has locations iterations in both California and Florida). Head Trip's lineup immediately grabbed his attention when he first saw it, and he was motivated to attend as a first-time Goldenvoice festivalgoer once he realized this event was only going to happen once.
“Even though the lineup is what a lot of people would consider classic by EDM standards, these are artists that were really huge in the early 2010s. It’s just as much a part of my life and my friends’ lives as probably people who lived it and partied through it. This was a staple for us,” Flax said.
Why Skrillex being on the lineup matters
One of the big selling points of Head Trip for Kelly and Tavares was the Sunday night performance by Skrillex, an artist who is known for bringing dubstep music and underground bass music into the mainstream during the early 2010s with hits such as “Bangarang,” “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” and "First of the Year (Equinox)."
“Skrillex is one of my top DJs and music artists of all time,“ Tavares said. “The opportunity to get to see him where he doesn’t play very often in Southern California, and doesn’t come to Phoenix really at all, is exciting.”
“Skrillex is like an all-time artist for me … I’ve never seen him before, so the fact that he was on there, but also Calvin Harris and Swedish House Mafia, all in one weekend on one stage (was huge),” Kelly said. “It truly was not a question of if we were going. That Instagram post dropped and was circling Reddit, and I basically was like, ‘We are going to this.’ I’m pretty sure it was the same night we booked it.”
But even though Flax describes Skrillex as a “classic,” he’s more excited for Harris’ headlining set on Saturday night.
“That was my childhood, like early teenage years,” Flax said.
Tavares, who said he has seen everyone on the lineup, discussed Skrillex’ staying power, even though the DJ reduced his visibility during the late 2010s and co-produced tracks for Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Incubus, The Weeknd and more. Nine years after the release of his debut album, "Recess," Skrillex reemerged in February 2023 to release two albums, “Quest for Fire” and “Don’t Get Too Close,” less than 24 hours apart.
He was also featured with Fred Again and Four Tet as a last-minute replacement for Frank Ocean during Weekend 2 of Coachella 2023.
“(Skrillex) just always seems slightly ahead of the curve, and that’s not to say the music he’s putting out right now is groundbreaking stuff, but it’s just really good music,” Tavares said. “Calvin Harris is a (previous) Coachella headliner, Swedish House Mafia is a (previous) Coachella headliner. I think Fisher and Chris Lake are probably just bordering on being a Coachella headliner, and I do think Skrillex is probably not a headliner today, but a sub-headliner.”
Goldenvoice is marketing this as another “once-in-a-lifetime” experience like its last two October festivals in Indio, Desert Trip and Power Trip, both of which featured music icons such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Guns ‘N Roses, AC/DC and Metallica. Tavares was hesitant to agree that Head Trip was on the same level as the two previous "Trip" festivals.
“Saying ‘once in a lifetime’ is maybe a little bit dramatic or an overgeneralization, but it did feel like, ‘hey, they’re going to do this (just) once,” Tavares said.
Kelly, on the other hand, confidently described Head Trip as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“I know I will probably never see all of those artists in one lineup again,” she said.
‘We definitely had to think about it for a second’
When tickets to Head Trip went on sale in March, GA passes started at $399. Now, only $589 GA and shuttle passes and $899 VIP passes remain on sale.
In March 2026, The Desert Sun published a research project that found the lowest estimated price for a fan traveling to Coachella — a total that included one GA pass, one camping pass, and one rental car and excluded airfare — was about $955. For a fan staying in a hotel rather than a campsite and utilizing the shuttle pass rather than a rental car, the cheapest estimated total was about $2,031.
Despite camping being the most affordable accommodation option, none of the three Head Trip festivalgoers we spoke to are camping, and all purchased the GA and shuttle pass combo.
When Kelly, who is traveling the farthest, was asked if she and her fiancé considered the cost of travel before purchasing passes, she said, “We definitely had to think about it for a second.” The hotel package they purchased through Goldenvoice was $2,000, and airfare totaled $1,600.
“That’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow when you’re purchasing a hotel package and flights, and there’s not even any direct flights (to Palm Springs International Airport) from Boston, which is crazy,” Kelly said. “We’re really lucky to be in a position where we don’t have kids, we have good jobs, we never planned on having kids, and we’re fortunate enough to have that extra income to be able to splurge.”
Flax said his $750 airfare total was partially offset by airline miles through his credit card. His group will also split the cost of a $2,200 Airbnb during the festival.
“I’m 23 and will make more money throughout my life. In the grand scheme of things, is the money I’m going to spend on this event going to be worth it? Am I going to remember this with my three buddies for the rest of my life? Yes, I absolutely will,” he said. I expect us to have a weekend full of memories and good vibes, and we’re all going to dance our asses off.”
Tavares, who will drive from Phoenix, estimates that he and his wife’s share of the Airbnb accommodations during the festival will be $1,300.
“It’s not easy, but my wife and I and a couple of our friends, we’re lucky that we do fairly well for ourselves. There’s a group of friends we used to go with (to events) back in the day when things were a little bit less expensive and we had less priorities in life. They’ve kind of phased out because of the cost. I’m sure they’d love to do it, but it just isn’t worth it. It’s changed over time, that’s for sure,” Tavares said.
Community, connection and shared experiences
All three attendees agree Head Trip is worth traveling to Indio for, but they have their own feelings about what makes electronic music festivals important in their lives.
“I like listening to the music and listening to it really loud and being a part of a crowd who are kind of all experiencing the same thing,” Tavares said. “EDM festivals are all at a danceable BPM (beats per minute), the music is generally kind of positive and encourages moving and having fun. That’s always been the vibe of the festivals.”
Flax described the crowd at Rolling Loud Festival, the self-professed largest hip-hop festival in the world, as “abrasive,” and said he “loves the community” of electronic music festivals in comparison.
“The last festival that I went to, everyone was so friendly,” Flax said. “I felt a lot more comfortable in a larger group of people. You were able to move more freely in and out of the crowds. You can make friends with anyone, and that’s probably the thing I’ve enjoyed the most.”
Kelly, conversely, doesn't go to EDM festivals to make new connections or dance with people she doesn't know. She prefers to stick with her friend group or with her fiancé, but she still loves that electronic festivals allow her to be — and dance in — the same space as the artists who created the music.
“Getting to listen to it live, seeing them react to the crowd, seeing the crowd react to them, maybe getting some mixes you wouldn’t necessarily hear — I think there’s just something really cool about seeing a master of their craft in the moment. That’s what brings me there,” Kelly said.
If you go
What: Head Trip
When: Oct. 10-11
Where: Empire Polo Club, 81-800 Avenue 51, Indio
How much: GA and shuttle pass combo is $589, VIP is $899
More information: headtripindio.com
Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: EDM fans are crossing the country for Head Trip. Is it worth the cost?
