After more than three decades under founder Mariah Hanson, The Dinah is entering a new era, but its new owners Rose Garcia and Bella Barkow aren’t interested in reinventing what already works.
Even though Hanson said the event would take a break for its 35th anniversary year, Garcia and Barkow decided the community it serves couldn’t afford to lose its one weekend of respite, and quickly started to plan its milestone event. Knowing the inner workings of the festival and collaborating with Hanson, the duo planned a festival that will return Sept. 30 through Oct. 4.
“We kind of looked at each other and felt like we were confident in our abilities to be able to put this together, even though timeline-wise we were about four or five months behind.
Thankfully, we were able to do it, but I think if it wasn’t us, it would have been a lot. It was hard for us,” Garcia said.
“This is something the community needs right now, and for a lot of people, this is sort of their one main respite throughout the year where they can come to a place and feel safe and with their people,” Barkow said.
In an August email to The Dinah's supporters and previous attendees, Hanson expressed support for the new owners and encouraged all who were hesitant to attend.
"I’m writing because this year’s Dinah is going to be fabulous, and I hope all of you who have loved and supported The Dinah over the years will come back and be part of this exciting new chapter with Rose and Bella," Hanson said in the email.
'It's more than just the sum of all its parts'
The new organizers have built on The Dinah’s success by keeping much of the event the same, while still offering some updates. Attendees at the 35th anniversary event will notice a new activation for singles and solo attendees to meet and mingle, an area at the Hotel Zoso pool party for games and non-alcoholic beverage options, and enhancements to the overall attendee experience.
“It was important that we created this event to continue to expand and touch on those different aspects of people’s lives. Because The Dinah is not just a queer women’s music festival or this large party, it is an experience. It’s a trip that needs to be taken by every gay at least once in their life. It more than just the sum of all its parts,” Barkow said.
Garcia, a real estate professional who appeared on the Showtime series “The Real L Word,” attended The Dinah for 25 years and was also a longtime emcee for a Dinah pool party and nighttime event. Barkow, an event producer, is also a longtime attendee and began working at The Dinah in 2018 as the operations manager.
Initially, Garcia had no interest in purchasing The Dinah, and Barkow was pursuing it with another partner, but that fell through. While Garcia was looking into it, she joined with Barkow to make the purchase.
“I felt like it was like a calling, something higher than me led me to this position,” Garcia said.
“I’m grateful that Rose decided to jump in and work on this with me. She has so much incredible experience in this field, doing events, and creating community spaces. For me, it was about continuing the legacy that Mariah had started, and to be involved in something that for me, brought so much joy and so much community early on,” Barkow said.
'A blueprint for success'
When The Dinah began in 1991, it started at The Palm Springs Art Museum and coincided with the Colgate Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle women's golf tournament. Hanson created it to be a safe and empowering event for queer women and lesbians that became known as a "lesbian spring break" for 20,000 women for a four-day celebration during the LPGA tournament.
As The Dinah became a popular event, it also began featuring up-and-coming music artists before they broke into the mainstream, headlining arenas, stadiums and festival stages at Lollapalooza and Coachella. Lady Gaga and Katy Perry were co-headliners in 2009. The Pussycat Dolls, Doechii, Lizzo, and Pat Benatar have also performed at the festival.
“I think Mariah set up an amazing blueprint of success,” Garcia said. “30-plus years of just literally every year leveling up and hitting it out of the park. Just act after act, and performer after performer, and just nailing it down right before they blew up. She had a knack for being able to book folks before they just exploded. Lady Gaga was already on the precipice of being who she is right when she performed at The Dinah.”
According to Garcia, The Dinah’s attendees range from someone attending for the first time at 21 to someone who might be 81 attending for the 35th time, and representation and musical diversity are a priority when it comes to booking the lineup.
This year's lineup will feature Hayley Kiyoko, Da Brat, Sasha Keable, and The Aces. Blimes, Mama Duke, and comedian Cameron Esposito, Pink Foxx and Abe Farrelly will also perform. Hanson said in the August email that she had tried to get Kiyoko, a personal favorite, to perform at The Dinah for the past eight years.
“Curating the lineup with different musical genres, musical styles and demographics was really important to be able to hit all those audience tones so we make sure that everybody feels like there’s something for them, and not to mention, I’m a fan of all these folks. I have actually seen 90% of the people that are on our roster. And as a fan, I book these people because I love their music,” Garcia said.
The Dinah will remain a fall event
The Dinah originally took place during late March and early April when it was founded 1991, until it returned after the pandemic in October 2021 — around the same time as the late Jeffrey Sanker's White Party event in Palm Springs. Ten years after The Dinah's inception, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival also became an annual desert event held in April, and the Stagecoach country music festival gained the same spring status after its debut in 2007.
For 50 years, the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle women's golf tournament (now known as the ANA Inspiration) was held every April at the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, and in its early years, Hanson always scheduled The Dinah for the same week. With the introduction of its new sponsor, Chevron U.S.A., the LPGA tournament relocated to the Houston area in 2023.
Hanson told The Desert Sun in 2025 that she would like to see The Dinah return to its original date in April by 2027, and polls taken at previous events reflected that. However, Garcia and Barkow are going to keep it in the fall.
"I do go to Coachella, so does a lot of our audience, and a ton of them go to Stagecoach. How can you go to three festivals in one month? That's wild. So we feel that moving it towards the end of the summer, beginning of fall, just economically felt like the right fit for our audience and for us as well to be able to produce an event at this capacity and give The Dinah this amazing production," Garcia said.
"It's just before the end of the season in Palm Springs, and for a lot of our community, especially female-identified persons, there is a wage gap still out there, and it's important that we keep it affordable and accessible," Barkow said.
Garcia said inflation has impacted costs across the board, especially for staging and travel for the artists, and required them to be "granular and really get down to the penny" in producing the boutique festival with a smaller budget to keep it affordable. Attendees also reached out to organizers to share their financial difficulties while making their travel plans.
"We've heard from people who said, 'I'm struggling,' 'I'm between jobs,' or 'one of us is working.' One of the things Rose and I tried to do is look at each situation individually, and where we could, we offered discounts to people who reached out to us. We've done our best to support people that way because we want everyone to be able to experience this, regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds," said Barkow.
'We guarantee you'll leave with a ton of new friends'
What can attendees expect this year from the new ownership other than the music, DJs and the overall atmosphere of The Dinah? Both say it's a place to come and meet new people.
"I always say when you come to The Dinah, even if you come by yourself, you're leaving with 1,000 new best friends, and it really is that environment," Garcia said." That's something that I really feel, especially this year, is resonating, is that sense of community and togetherness while you're attending a pretty kick-ass party."
"Rose and I both got into this because we believe in it, and because we want to be part of the community," Barkow added. "And I will say, Rose is one of the best wing-women you'll ever meet, so don't be afraid to come on your own. We guarantee you'll leave with a ton of new friends."
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: Why a famous Palm Springs lesbian music fest returns with new owners
