Review by Bryan Deng

The Dirtybird label, led by Barclay Crenshaw a.k.a. Claude Vonstroke, has always been known for their attention to detail, love for their fans, and most of all for their unique deep house and techno sound that has rocked dancefloors everywhere. What began as a BBQ in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco has snowballed into a nationwide tour of BBQs that ended in their first ever weekend-long festival in Southern California last week.

If you have ever been to a Dirtybird BBQ, you would know that the family vibe is something you don’t find very often at other shows or festivals. Everyone is meeting people and making new friends, as well as being their wacky, weird, and fun selves without any judgment. People also put a lot of thought into their outfits, often making custom Dirtybird swag such as shirts, hats, aprons, pins, and badges.  You won’t find kandi, fuzzy boots, or other loud rave outfits here. Everything including the fashion has more of an underground bootleg techno feel.

As people from across the world gathered in Silverado, California for the inaugural campout, no one knew what lay ahead, except that the campout was going to be an incrediby special experience. After three days and nights of music and fun, I’m pleased to say Dirtybird Campout exceeded every expectation I had by far.

Photo credit: John Palladino

Getting There

Getting to the campout was relatively simple. The venue in Oak Canyon Park lies about an hour and a half drive outside of LA. The campsite has hosted other festivals such as Woogie Weekend, and Lightning in a Bottle festival so getting into the festival and campgrounds was very organized and went by smoothly. The campout also provided shuttle busses from LAX and San Francisco for those who didn’t have a ride.

For those planning to do car camping or RV, there is a large shopping center called The Market Place about 15 minutes away from the venue which was the perfect place to stock up on food, camping essentials, and to grab a last legitimate meal before heading in.  

Camping

Campers had many options available to them. You could park and walk your stuff into the campgrounds, buy a car camping pass, an RV camping pass, or a fully set up and furnished camping package in Camp Kodiak.  The main campgrounds had streets and road signs making it easy to locate your campsite throughout the weekend.

When I first got there on Friday afternoon, the grounds were dry and dusty and a bit rocky. By Saturday night, rain clouds had descended on the festival and for the rest of the weekend it was raining on and off, but the Dirtybird campers kept it going strong. By Monday morning most of the grounds was a muddy mess, however the whole weekend I didn’t hear one person complain and it actually made the daytime sun much more tolerable.

Capacity

One great thing that I really enjoyed about this festival is the size. There were only about 2,000 to 3,000 attendees and maybe 1,000 more staff, so you were always running into the same people and friends throughout the whole weekend. The music would only be playing from one stage at a time, so there were never any conflicts. If you and your friends wanted to hear music, you were always heading to the same place. The artists themselves were also walking around among the crowd, participating in activities, and having a great time themselves outside of DJing. I ran into Justin Martin, JPhlip, and Claude Vonstroke multiple times and they were always willing to stop and chat. It made you feel like you were part of one big family.

Photo credit: Bryan Deng

Crowd

The best part of the festival by far were the people. Everyone had put so much thought into their costumes, from a troop of girl scouts to a giant squirrel onesie. Everyone including the artists busted out their old scouting gear, and made the whole summer camp experience real to life. The sheer sillyness of it all had me laughing the entire weekend. While the crowd was mostly native Californians, I met people from Seattle, Portland, Chicago, New York, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Vancouver, even Italy and Austria. This just goes to show that people will travel any distance to be a part of the Dirtybird experience.

Photo credit: Lizz Evalen

Photo credit: Ben De Ayora

Food

A huge part of the Dirtybird BBQs was of course the food! The grill master Grillson is always at the helm at these events and that was no different at the BBQs on Saturday and Sunday. Of course you could grab a pizza from The Dough Lab or pitas and hummus from The Middle Feast. There was also beer & wine available for purchase. The pizza guru Justin Martin was also able to jump behind the counter on Friday and help make pizzas for everyone and entertain. I was also part of the work exchange program and worked in the kitchen at the Dough Lab throughout the weekend. Since the food vendors were right next to the main stage, I didn’t miss a single set due to work. It was also extremely fun to be tossing dough and making pizza while dancing with my coworkers to heavy bass and beats.

Photo credit: Ben De Ayora

Things to do

There was never any shortage of things to do at the campout. Games and activites ran from 9am to 7pm every day. When you registered to play, you were given a colored bandanna that was your team for the weekend.

Team games included kickball, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, tug-of-war, and sack relays.

There were also open play games that included volleyball, mini golf, ping pong, slip-in-slide, archery, row boats, basketball, volleyball, badminton, rock climbing and a scavenger hunt.

Workshops and classes like nature hikes, yoga, craft making, face & body painting were also available. At night, there was story-telling, s’mores, late night movies, comedy shows, talent shows, and bingo.

Even though growing up I have never been to actual summer camp, I imagine there was as much to do as a real life summer camp and more. Half the fun was also hanging out in the campgrounds with friends. Someone even brought a bouncy castle into the camp. I never got to go in but it was definitely was amazing to see that level of commitment.

What makes this festival different?

Attention to detail: As soon as you pick up your wristband at the box office you are handed a field guide which serves as a schedule, festival map, info guide, and also includes a welcome letter and words of wisdom from the camp leader Claude Vonstroke. Everything was thought out so that everyone would have the most fun possible. The merchandise was also very well designed.

Music: All the stage setups used the top-of the line VOID soundsystems, which Dirtybird has used exclusively for their events. The speakers made the sound travel perfectly all the way to the back of the crowd. You could also be right next to the speakers without putting your ears in pain.

Barclay Crenshaw (Claude Vonstroke’s real name) made his alter ego debut Saturday morning with a 5am set that combined future bounce with hip hop classics. That set went straight into the Justin Martin and Christian Martin brothers playing a back-to-back drum ‘n’ bass set until the sunrise that was accompanied by a rain shower. The best way to describe the feelings during these sets: transformative dance party.

Some of the best sets were also artists that I had never heard before. Breach had a deep techno house set on Friday night, Laura Jones had a dreamy disco house set opening for Claude Vonstroke Saturday night, and Billy Kenny threw down a Chicago house heavy set during the day on Sunday. Despite Route 94 and Lee Foss not being able to make it due to unrelated health issues, Samo Soundboy and Danny Daze kept the vibe going with great sets and were overall solid replacements.

The VIBE: The fact that the festival was so small made everything that much more intimate. You felt a family connection to all those around you regardless if you knew them or not. I felt no problem going up to people and asking their names, complimenting them on their outfits, or asking for help when I needed it. Everyone was amazing and friendly and I did not meet one person with a bad attitude.

Overall rating: 9/10

Overall, the campout has proven that Dirtybird are the masters of fun. Everything about the campout was well planned and organized. Between the amazing music, friends, and activites I couldn’t have asked for a better time. The only thing that I would have liked to see more of is art installations. While the venue itself was beautiful in it’s simplicity, when compared to Electric Forest it would have been nice to see more lights at night. Given that it wasn’t the focus of the festival I can’t complain too much. Claude Vonstroke has said many times leading up to this that the Dirtybird Campout was his baby and it shows. Despite being a nationally touring artist and label boss, he can still throw on a killer festival, one that I personally cannot wait to attend next year.  

– Bryan