The inaugural Coconino Campout was a super special experience that will go down in the books as a core memory for everyone who attended. The festival took place at Pepsi Amphitheater, with camping on site in Fort Tuthill County Park. RV camping was available, but walk-in camping was the way to go – the campground borders a national forest, and there was more than enough space for every campsite with plenty of trees to string up a hammock. The parking lot was adjacent to the campground with minimal walking to lug in gear. A water spigot and porta potties located inside the cozy campground made camping a breeze. Pepsi Amphitheater itself is a beautiful, intimate venue with a grassy slope leading to some seating and a small pit area in front of the stage. Clean restrooms, party potties, and water refill stations were easily accessible inside the venue. The best part of this venue is how easy it is to get front and center, which was made even easier by the respectful and kind vibes of all the attendees – it was a homie fest for sure. And all acts were on one main stage, so no conflicts!
DAY 1 – FRIDAY
The first set we saw on Day 1 was Chmura b2b Molokai! They dropped some great wonky bass tracks – that deserve a lot more attention! – such as “How We Do” and “Leave My Mark On The Planet” (Chmura), as well as “Solstice” and “Quinoa” (Molokai). Their set had a lot of variety, from the badass track “Certified” by Eazybaked to the dreamy “Don’t Mean A Thing” by Lapalux.
Keeping the vibes high despite some technical difficulties at the beginning of her set, A Hundred Drums brought it home strong in her signature hyphy style that has influences of drum & bass, hip-hop, dubstep, and more. Standouts from her set were a few new releases: a dark and wubby but catchy remix of “Who’s Laughing Now” by WHIPPED CREAM, a brand new song that she’s never played even once before, and her new collab with CloZee called “Elysian Fields” that recently came out on the Odyzey compilation album, Muzique Vol. 4. We discovered a new artist to follow, AZ producer Afterparty, when she dropped his heavy track “The Kraken”. We also felt moved by the beautiful Black Lives Matter visuals that were part of her set, displaying many names of those killed at the hands of police or as a hate crime, such as George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McCain, and Natasha McKenna.
The Widdler was a standout with a super fun set, cooking up plenty of deep wubby bass. We got to hear several songs off his new 43-track album Zero G, including the song of the same name that has a reggae beat and lots of womps, the drippy song “Cyber”, the more downtempo song “Elements”, and the trippy-sounding “Wind Up” (just stfu and listen to the music!). He also played some classics like “Woo Boost” by Rusko and nostalgic 90s and Y2k tunes including “Drop it Like It’s Hot”, the theme song from Pinky and the Brain, “Sandstorm” (with a sick new drop!) into “Because of You” by Kelly Clarkson, and a reggae version of “Mr. Brightside”.
Highlights from Truth’s set included the 2017 banger “Run That”, “Grampian” (2018 collab with Stylust ft Sgt Pokes), “No Mercy” by Distinct Motive, Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”, and the set ending with first a brand new ID followed by an 18-year old song, “The Emperor” – proving Truth has been the master of everything Deep Dark and Dangerous long before founding the DDD label.
If you haven’t gotten addicted to G Jones’ glitchy acid house style yet, you’re missing out. We were able to be front and center on the rail, and being totally flooded with his unique sounds and mesmerizing black & white visuals was a top tier experience. Highlights included his songs “A2C2I2D”, “Which Way” (includes an Alice in Wonderland sample as the intro), and the more emotional and bittersweet-sounding song “Remnant”. As is always true of a G Jones set it felt like we went through a Windows 95 defragmentation and it left our brains feeling decompressed and clearer.
LSDREAM was the perfect Night 1 headliner, filling our hearts and souls to the brim. His psychedelic visuals in every color of the rainbow were even more jaw-dropping following the black & white aesthetic of G Jones, and added another dimension to the set throughout. We were thrilled that he rinses a couple GRiZ tracks, starting with “Drop In” then shifting into their collab “Funkonaut” (pretty sure we speak for everyone when we say we miss GRiZ). Other all-time faves he played included “PEACE LOVE & WUBZ”, “Starchild”, and the Ganja White Night collab “Badman”, as well as an unreleased ID plus the new LSZEE song “French Dream” (which is definitely one of our favorite new releases of the year). Mixed in with those bangers were some more samples from 90s and Y2k throwbacks including “No Diggity” by Blackstreet and Dr. Dre, “Pop Lock & Drop It” by Huey, “Bass Cannon” by Flux Pavilion, “Wannabe” by Spice Girls, and “Bass Down Low” by Dev.
DAY 2 – SATURDAY
Lumasi was the first set we saw on Saturday, and we were surprised by a wide variety of popular songs mixed in including “Strawberry Fields” (arguably our favorite Beatles song), Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” (again!), “Apple Bottom Jeans”, and a song by Coldplay. We were especially excited to hear his remix collab with Tape B of Schoolboy Q’s “Man of the Year”.
Sunsquabi had us dancing hard with their beloved high-energy jams. We loved hearing our favorite tunes like “Pablito”, “Deluxe”, “Cinnamon” and “Scorpion”. And watching Kevin Donohue play guitar behind his back during “Tequila Mockingbird” was mind-blowing (even though we’ve seen him do it before!).
Zingara has been drawing huge crowds to every set we’ve seen lately, and this one was no different. We all flocked to the stage to get down as Zingara threw down, her set somehow both the most fun party and a spiritual transformation all in one. Zingara has teased a new EP in connection with her Crystal Children Tour happening this fall, and a Crystal Children set intro had us enthralled from the start. Highlights included “Space Candy”, several songs off her 2024 album The Code of Dreamz, “Manifest” which is another of our favorite releases of 2024, and her unreleased song called “Shapeshift”. She also dropped the popular new release ”Push” by Skrillex, “Hamdi” by TAICHU & OFFAIAH, and gave a nod to nostalgia with “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas which had an awesome transition/drop leading into “Vogue” by Noizu.
Detox Unit
Not only were we excited to check out Detox Unit for the first time, one of our favorite VJs, Actualize, was running visuals for him! Detox Unit played his song “Liability” with the famous “You’ve got mail” line, and Actualize paired it with some great AOL-inspired visuals. We also got to hear one our favorite songs of his, “Expand”, and it was also fun to hear Detox Unit drop “Summertime” by Sublime.
Clozee was of course one of the highlights, and being on the rail for her set was a super special first for us. She opened with the “I heard you say” ID that she’s been playing for the past year or so. She also dropped her remix of “Baiana” with Stand Up – Ludacris, and played “Skylight” with the drop from the Senbeï remix. We noted a few super cool tracks by less well-known artists: “Foolery” – Criso, “Born to Wonk” – Edekit, and “Rustic” – Luxage. Most of all we were excited to hear more new LSZEE, “Chrysalis” and “SLAY” – though we noted that LSDREAM didn’t come out to play them with her. CloZee didn’t appear during his set, either, but we suspect it was just logistical challenges as they both played other festivals this same weekend.
DAY 3 – SUNDAY
Secret Recipe, founder of Oakland’s Wormhole Entertainment brand and head curator of Wormhole Music Group, was a great start to our final day at Coconino. His unique cooking-themed visuals were a fun addition to the set, especially during his song “LICK IT”, a collab with rapper Thug Shells that’s a sexy play on cooking and eating a secret recipe.
Canabliss opened with the trending audio “But she was not just any girl… she was a fairy” (from the film Maleficent) before throwing down a high-energy set, with lots of crowd pleasers like “Flip It” – Levity, “Cinema” – Skrillex, and a throwback with “Family Affair” – Mary J Blige. No complaints on hearing “Push” by Skrillex and “Baiana” again too! She also dropped “Snakes” by Distinct Motive, and her remix of “Habits (Stay High)” by Tove Lo was especially clever – emphasizing the lyrics “I gotta stay high.”
Desert Dwellers was a change in pace after Canabliss – a flowing journey into another realm. We loved hearing their remix of “Homeworld” by Nanosphere. While their set was incredible and full of beautiful music, their visuals were a bit simplistic compared to other artists this weekend.
Tape B was one of our favorite sets of the weekend! Opening with his 2024 release and collab with Mersiv and Juicy J, Trippy Land, the set also included his remix of “Flip It” – Levity! He also dropped a couple awesome hip-hop tracks like “Pursuit of Happiness” – Kid Kudi and old-school dubstep songs like “Promises” – Nero and “Crave You” – Adventure Club’s, “Flight Facilities”. We were super excited when he dropped the then-unreleased collab with Ganja White Night, which is called “Ganja Tape”. He also played an awesome mix of “Spanish Moss” by Of The Trees with “Palm Trees” by Flatbush Zombies – which made us reminisce on seeing Of The Trees at this venue last year during Ursa Major!
Daily Bread kept us grooving nonstop with a dynamic set including songs like “Moon Slips Away” from his 2023 album Invisible Cinema and “Push It To The Limit” (ft Artifakts) from his Flash Flood II mixtape.
Liquid Stranger was the perfect end to a perfect weekend. He went super hard, giving us all the energy release we needed to close the festival. He played a wild version of “Trailblazer”, his collab with ProbCause, as well as his fire new song “Walk to the Sun”. His final song was a jaw-dropping unreleased ID (“We are the revolution”). He later played this at Lost Lands as well, and we heard through the grapevine that it should come out sometime next year. Oh and of course we had some spaghetti time allowing us to really let loose for one last time.
