Goldenvoice Reveals First Look at Head Trip Festival's Otherworldly Stage Design
Goldenvoice has just given fans their first real glimpse of what's coming to the desert this October, unveiling High Scream's stage concept for Head Trip, the one-time-only event taking over the Empire Polo Club in Indio on October 10-11. Built for two nights, one stage, and a lineup assembled just this once, the production was designed from the ground up to create something that could only exist here, right now.
The design is the work of Romain Pissenem, founder of creative production company High Scream, who has spent more than two decades shaping electronic music experiences at scale. His résumé reads like a tour of the biggest visual moments in modern dance music, from redefining the club experience at UNVRS, Ushuaïa Ibiza, and Hï Ibiza, to major arena and stadium spectacles including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games closing ceremony, Madison Square Garden, and a show staged at the Great Pyramids of Giza. That kind of range made Pissenem a natural fit for an event with the ambition Head Trip is chasing.
Pissenem wanted the structure to feel almost science-fictional, as though something had landed in the desert overnight, while still belonging to the landscape around it. Reflective materials are built to catch the desert light and the surrounding palm trees, and the stage's overall shape draws directly on the Airstreams Pissenem remembered seeing on a visit to the venue years earlier for Coachella. Rather than treating screens, lighting, video, and architecture as separate elements bolted together, High Scream has built them into a single, unified visual system, which is exactly the kind of detail that separates a truly considered stage design from a standard festival rig.
That system doesn't stop at the stage itself. Lighting and lasers will stretch across the entire festival floor, creating what Pissenem describes as a forest of light, with metallic structures scattered through the grounds functioning almost like electronic trees. The idea is to place fans inside the show no matter where they're standing in the crowd, while still giving each artist room to bring their own visual identity into the larger production. It's an ambitious approach to festival design, and based on this first look, it's one worth getting excited about.
All of it is in service of a lineup built for exactly two nights and nothing more. Saturday brings Calvin Harris, FISHER B2B Chris Lake presenting Under Construction, Peggy Gou B2B Four Tet, and Seth Troxler B2B Ben Sterling, while Sunday is stacked with Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex, Dom Dolla B2B KETTAMA, The Blessed Madonna, and DJ Harvey. With one stage and no overlapping sets across the weekend, fans won't have to choose between must-see acts, a genuinely rare structure for a festival with a bill this stacked. Floating Points' Sunflower Sound System will also make its US debut at Head Trip, running throughout the weekend as its own standalone audio experience.
With a stage this considered and a lineup this focused, Head Trip is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated nights the desert has seen in years, and this is only the first look. Do yourselves the biggest favor and grab a ticket as soon as you can.
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