Splash House Ready to Rock Trio of Palm Springs Locations

Second year features buzz-worthy electronic musicians and DJ’s

Shon Tomlin Arts & Entertainment

 

Splash House.

The name alone inspires poolside bliss, which is exactly what brother and sister event organizers Kelly and Tyler McLean envisioned for the multi-venue concert series.

The three-day music festival, June 13-15, features more than 40 artists playing across three pools in the heart of Palm Springs. Music fans can shuttle between The Hard Rock Hotel, The Saguaro, and The Hacienda Beach Club to soak themselves in performances from today’s most buzz-worthy electronic musicians and DJ’s.

In less than a year, Splash House has managed to attract artists as big as Moby and partner with the leaders in live music, Goldenvoice.

Palm Springs Life caught up with event co-founder Kelly McLean to get the story behind Coachella Valley’s latest addition to its growing live music scene.

How did you and Tyler come up with the idea to create Splash House?
“My boyfriend Paul was running for city council and we were talking about our summertime economy, and about bringing young people back and having a year-round economy. And then my brother Tyler had just graduated from UCLA. He shared about how his friends would go to Las Vegas during summertime and about why we can’t get that same type of traveler to come to Palm Springs as it’s only two hours from LA. We talked about some sort of music festival, but the problem was that we don’t have a venue large enough but we do have pools, and actually we have one of the largest concentration of resort pools than anywhere in the country. So, looking at that we thought, why not connect these pools together to make one festival?” 

Did you draw any inspiration from other events?
“We are looking at everything and what everyone has done to create our own brand.  We looked at what we did last year and what we’re really pushing is the Palm Springs brand…the aesthetic of gorgeous mountain back drops, swaying palm trees, being poolside, girls in bikinis…that’s really the whole pitch. Palm Springs is really what makes this whole thing cool.”

What makes Splash House stand apart from other multi-day music festivals?
“People really like that it was unique with the shuttle experience, the community feeling and that it’s a little bit low key. We really want to make sure that we don’t create a Las Vegas scene because there’s already a Vegas. And for us, we do have a capacity problem so we can’t oversell for the hotels. So it’s limited and that’s why it still has a small feeling. It’s not a hundred thousand people at the festival, instead it’s three to four thousand people. Also, last year a lot of the artists stayed overnight at the hotels and people really got the chance to party with them, so it’s a really organic experience.”

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