Music festivals within driving distance of L.A.

Staged along the convention center side of San Diego’s downtown waterfront, the appropriately named Wonderfront includes sets from Kaytranada, JID, Weezer, Dominic Fike, Beck, Mt. Joy, the Roots, Carly Rae Jepsen, T-Pain, Polo & Pan and more. You’ll find Wonderfront from May 10 to 12 at Embarcadero Marina Park North, Seaport Village and Ruocco Park.

Cake on the eyeliner, cry it off and then dance away the tears at the return of this 1980s-to-aughts goth, new wave and punk fest with Duran Duran, Interpol, Blondie, Simple Minds, Placebo, Soft Cell, Adam Ant, Gary Numan and more. The one-day-only event features dozens of alt obsessions on the golf course next to the Rose Bowl, where it once again returns.

On the outskirts of town at the Motor Speedway, Electric Daisy Carnival is pure, condensed Vegas. There is a VIP Ferris wheel. Helicopters shuttle in high rollers. The 135,000-strong crowd is soaked in ecstasy and spray tan. Every millionaire DJ that plays the laser-riddled nightclubs on the Strip is here. EDC introduced EDM as a Day-Glo spectacle for the masses in America, and its lineups in recent years have certainly lived up to the hype (Tiësto, David Guetta, John Summit, FISHER, Kaskade, Diplo, Deadmau5, Peggy Gou play this year’s fest). Once you let the neon and bass wash over you, it is the time of your life.

Make your way to the desert for the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a gathering of like-minded indie musicians who will be rocking out to a dance-world-electro-funk’n groove. The biannual festival is a four-day party with over 30 bands in a unique lineup of artists who aren’t necessarily household names. There’s free water to all patrons, minimal service charges on tickets and yoga classes aplenty.

The aughts indie nostalgia shows no signs of stopping, so its no surprise that Just Like Heaven—a music fest that’s featured basically every beloved 2000s indie band—is coming back for its fourth edition. The fest will take over the golf course next to the Rose Bowl on May 18, 2024 with a lineup that’s pulled straight from your old iPod: The Postal Service, Phoenix, Death Cab for Cutie and the War on Drugs top this year’s lineup, with additional sets from Miike Snow, Gossip, Passion Pit, Tegan and Sara, Washed Out, Alvvays, Phantogram, Broken Social Scene and more.

After years on the Central Coast, the annual event has more recently made a move significantly closer to L.A., at Bakersfield’s Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area. Sure, it’s still a bit of a trek, but where else can you find a sustainable, vegetarian festival dedicated to equal parts music, food, art, yoga and wellness? Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake and M.I.A. top the 2024 lineup.

This weekend-long concert will once again return to West Hollywood Park as part of WeHo Pride. Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monáe and Diplo headline this year’s fest with additional sets from Doechii, Ashnikko, Noah Cyrus, Trixie Mattel, Keke Palmer, Channel Tres, Yaeji, Big Freedia, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, VINCINT and more.

The long-running L.A. Pride has left West Hollywood for destinations farther east, including for this music festival on the edge of Chinatown. There’s no lineup yet for this year’s edition (Megan Thee Stallion and Mariah Carey headlined last year’s) but the Christopher Street West-produced concert will once again set up at L.A. State Historic Park on June 8, with all sorts of other LGBTQ+ programming between sets.

As Coachella has become increasingly pop-friendly, promoter Goldenvoice has made it up to aging locals with more and more genre-focused music festivals with stellar lineups. The latest such case: No Values, a fest filled with punk legends you’re almost sure to find in Gen X’ers T-shirt drawer. The Original Misfits, Social Distortion, Iggy Pop, Turnstile, Bad Religion and Sublime top the lineup for the June 8 show at Fairplax in Pomona, with additional sets from the Dillinger Escape Plan, Power Trip, the Damned, Joyce Manor, Suicidal Tendencies, the Vandals, Black Flag, the Jesus Lizard, L7, the Dead Milkmen and more.

House music hits the Queen Mary waterfront during this two-day fest. Though the 2024 lineup is still to come, last year’s edition of the multi-stage event featured the likes of Dombresky, Duke Dumont and Dom Dolla.