When Lucerne Valley went punk: How Desolation Center festivals in the 1980s inspired Coachella, Burning Man
Editor s note: This article originally ran in the Palm Springs Desert Sun on Oct. 16, 2019.
In the early 1980s, the music and art scenes in Los Angeles thrived. There were no limits, everything was up for grabs and the underground turned out bands opposite of the mainstream. Thought-provoking performance art would have shocked traditional audiences with nihilistic realism of living during the Cold War. Men, women and people of different racial and cultural backgrounds united to create experimental music ahead of its time. Punk rock anarchy made chaos sexy to suburbanites.