Each year, festival season seems to officially kick off with Instagram feeds flooded with desert dust from Coachella and neon lights from EDC in the spring. And while those tentpoles in the scene don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, deep music fans know a secret: fall is when the magic actually happens. And autumn festivals in the West offer something those crowded mega-festivals simply can’t—intimacy, perfect weather, and that golden hour glow that makes every sunset worth chasing.
This fall, concert goers can swap the sweltering April heat of Indio with 75-degree days, no dust storms, and crowds that actually let you breathe. Some of them may even be considered micro-festivals in comparison to the 250,000 attendees Coachella draws each weekend. And because flights are generally cheaper in shoulder season after the summer school holiday rush, you can do it for even cheaper.
Ohana Festival transforms Dana Point into a beachside paradise in September, while CRSSD Festival brings electronic beats to San Diego‘s waterfront parks. Up north in San Francisco, Portola Festival showcases cutting-edge acts in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival continues its 67-year tradition of world-class performances.
Photo courtesy of High Sierra Music Festival, which takes place in July.
For the genre-curious, there’s Desert Daze in Pioneertown—a psychedelic wonderland against Joshua Tree’s otherworldly backdrop—and San Francisco’s beloved Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, where admission is free and the vibes are priceless. Sound Summit in Mill Valley rounds out the season with indie darlings performing among the redwoods.
Another festival worth checking out this fall is Rise, a three-day celebration of art, music, and light held in the Mojave Desert, south of Las Vegas. For its 10th anniversary this year on the weekend of October 3, the festival will feature RÜFÜS DU SOL, Calvin Harris, and John Mayer as headliners.
So if you’re feeling FOMO as the Burning Man dispatches start flowing in next month, fear not—fall is on the horizon.