The Rise of Desert Undergrounds: A look at Midnight in Eden, The Summer Soulstice
With music being one of the greatest pleasures we are able to enjoy as humans, it is absolutely remarkable to see music festivals taking place all over the globe. The opportunity to gather with thousands of other people to share the love and passion for wonderful sounds is undeniably an unforgettable experience for all.
These festivals did not just pop out of nowhere, though. There has been years and years of growth for most of these events, with many hard working individuals coming together to create something extremely special. Massive events we know today, like Lightning in a Bottle, Desert Hearts, and Burning Man all started off as intimate, private gatherings in the desert with just a couple hundred people (at most!). Small desert parties seem to have a special spark that makes people endure hot and cold temperatures without a care, and keep coming back for more.
Jason Camacho, a 22 year old from Oxnard, CA, knows all about these gatherings and what they can offer to people. From throwing an event last new years in the Mojave Desert, which I was lucky enough to be a part of - to now throwing another event, The Summer Soulstice, it is amazing to see where this idea is heading.
The New Years event, Midnight in Eden: A Desert Oasis was a spectacular gathering - it was lowkey, had cheap tickets, a booming sound system, awesome music, free breakfast, and attendees had the freedom to roam the desert with ease. With a solid group of hardworking individuals, a group of very talented Djs (45 to be exact), and a great amount of people that want to have a good time... From June 25-29, The Summer Soulstice will be home to many, and I can't wait to see what this gathering has to offer this time around.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Jason, and see what his plans are to make this event a success, how the cultivation came about, the future of the gathering, and more.
You threw your first event called Midnight in Eden last New Years, can you tell us more about that?
Midnight In Eden: A Desert Oasis was the first of many events we will be throwing, it was the appetizer to a never ending buffet of your favorite foods. I am so thankful for the 200 people that showed up to the middle of actual no where in 20 degree freezing weather. So many people showed up not knowing a damn thing about anything, I didn’t even know a damn thing either but I was so confident it would be magical. We went out to a dried up lakebed, built a stage, brought a banging $100K speaker system courtesy of one of my resident DJ’s, made some carne asada & served some mimosas while we danced in the desert. This event was crucial for our future because it was the first impression people would get & we knew there would be mistakes that were made but so necessary to learn from to help improve our future events! Trial & error!
What is Midnight in Eden: The Summer SOULSTICE? Midnight In Eden: The Summer Soulstice is whatever the people make it out to be. We are all living our own lives & have different perspectives so each experience will be different for everyone whether you attended the first festival, MIE: A Desert Oasis, heard about it, or simply seen footage of it via the internet. To me, Soulstice is a culmination of many talents such as live painting, motivational speakers, yoga, spiritual healing, music, architecture, dancing, etc. Expression is very important to me because I always express how I feel & I want others to feel comfortable doing the same because I know it is difficult due to their location or surroundings. I want to create a safe zone where everyone can be themselves & be inspired to ignite that fire inside of them & feel comfortable enough to act on that feeling of creativity.
How do you plan to make this event successful, without the privilege of a giant budget? As of now, all of the talent on my lineup has offered their services free of charge, they see it as an investment and an outlet to promote themselves and gain experience! It’s not often you get asked to perform for a crowd of hundreds of people, I’ve found people who are thankful and appreciative of that fact. With tickets being so cheap it would be hard to make any profit let alone pay dj’s thousands of dollars to do so. In my previous business encounters I’ve learned that being #1 and selling the most isn’t the best. I am choosing not to overwhelm myself and have created a capacity of 500 people for my events until I feel I have enough experience to expand. Consistency will be my new look, I truly believe that I will be doing this forever so money doesn’t concern me that’s not what I’m about. Right now I want to focus on building relationships with my people and building a solid foundation for a family of people so that when people come to my events typically everyone will know everyone and all the people who have been before will set prime examples for the people who are new. Keeping a low ticket cost is crucial because I’m not about the profit, I am simply about covering the costs for sound, restrooms, generator/power, transportation, art/stages. As long as I can keep that up to date & looking fresh each time I will be satisfied.
What is Hierosight?
Hierosight is the label under which my friends and I will work under. 'Hiero' meaning sacred/holy sight. So your perspective is yours and yours only so embrace it and respect it so that you can set prime examples of being a confident, respectable and creative person. Hierosight productions will be in charge of running the events. Hierosight clothing will be for our artists to use as an outlet to get their creative ideas on clothing/accessories for people who want to appreciate it. Hierosound will be for our music collective we wish to create for all of our talented musicians. There are no limits to what Hierosight will do and we are excited to watch it grow day by day. To learn more you can visit hierosight.com.
Where did the idea for an event like MIE & the summer SOULSTICE come about? Well, I had just woken up from a wild night of Moon Tribe in the desert with my friends and was just having my daily morning thoughts of what the hell am I even doing with my life right now. Then I started thinking about New Years and how awful my last New Years was. Usually go to Vegas or some mainstream event to celebrate but that’s just not what I wanted to do this year. After seeing how beautiful Moon Tribe was & how easy it look to organize it hit me, I knew I was capable of doing something similar but with my own twist. I immediately talked to my friend Chris about it and everything else I come to him about, he was fully supportive of the idea and ready to help. So we planned out logistics and thought of everything we would need to do to make this happen and set up an eventbrite ticket page. From that point on it wasn’t just me anymore and it never will be. Every single day since that moment someone has reached out to me offering something special to add to the experience, ready and willing to help. I have felt an overwhelming amount of support over the past 6 months and I am forever thankful to be surrounded by so many hard working and determined people. It inspires me to never give up and it reminds me that this is something good, this is something beyond ME. I’ve always been the group coordinator planning all of our festival trips, camping trips, even party buses back in the day so it was no surprise that I could pull off such a gathering on a larger scale. Life is meant to be lived and I want to channel everyone's talents into one thing so we can all thrive off of each other. Who will be performing at the event, and how did the decision of who would play be made? I set up a window of opportunity when I first announced Soulstice and gave artists a month to submit applications to perform at Soulstice. From those applications I carefully selected who would be on the lineup. I gave everyone a fair chance to perform and always will! I think it will keep the lineup fresh and inspire more people to try hard to come out and showcase their talents! I felt bad saying no to some people cause I really do wanna give everyone a chance but I also hope they take it as motivation to work harder! What do you hope to show people that attend the summer SOULSTICE? You can do anything you want if you want to. You can create an entire new world of your own if you want it hard enough. No matter what mistakes you’ve made in your life there will always be room for improvement. Do not let a little setback prevent you from making your dreams a reality. This world can be cruel and people will be ready for you to mess up and eat you alive but you gotta be stronger than that. You got to rise above and do what you want for YOUR life. No one is gonna live your life for you except for YOU! Take what you want because it is yours.
Setting goals is one thing, but making the moves to bring those goals to life is completely different. Listening to Jason exert the passion he has for his friends, his ideas, and the gratitude he has for this scene in general was remarkable. Like some of the most known festivals today, MIE sprouted from wanting to be with your friends in a free environment, with some good music. They all started somewhere, from one idea, from the gathering of a few. I can’t wait to see how The Summer Soulstice comes together, and I know many others feel the same! Tickets are almost sold out, get yours HERE!
There has been a playlist created of Promo mixes from the Djs performing at The Summer Soulstice, listen below!
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AUTHOR CREDIT:BROOKE SLIGER