Review and photos by Mitchell Aaron Gross
Munduzer Festival Quick Facts:
Camping: Yes
Capacity: Extremely small, under 1,000 attendees
Crowd type: Conscious and creative community. It is the antithesis of any large, overproduced festival.
Music genre: House, Deep Bass, with some live funk bands thrown in.
How To Get There
You will need to drive to this event. It’s about 30 minutes from Phoenix Airport by car. Carpooling is highly recommended and you can find new friends on the festival’s event page. Plus, you’re able to stay green and conserve the environment.
Where To Stay
VIP Teepees were available for those not looking to bring their own camping supplies. The Teepees were set up and ready to move right in to. While there are a few hotels closeby staying in one would mean losing out on the experience of the event and not recommended. Plus, you have the opportunity to meet and co-create with everyone in attendance.
Food
A variety of vendors with food available. There was everything from vegan Mexican food to gourmet wood fired pizzas provided by Freak Brothers Pizza. For a small festival there were plenty of options.
Production
For a festival of less than 1,000 people the event had incredible production. Over 50,000 watts of sound at the mainstage along with an excessive lighting and special effects made for a very unique experience. A second and smaller stage curated by Digital Permaculture provided the deep and trippy house vibes.
Artists You May Not Have Heard of But Can’t Miss
The entire event was a couldn’t miss and attempting to quantify any moment with a particular artist is unfair. Personally I enjoyed the vibes and tracklist that Jeremiah Christo provided but this event was significantly more about enjoying each others company and the overall experience that the close nit community created.
Things To Do
Everything, and even better was the amount of participation for each of the events. Throughout the event there were multiple workshops going on. By noon on Saturday I had already gone for a hike that involved sound healing and fresh coffee. I was able to braid a new paracord camera strap while I watched a large group learning capoeira and this is merely a taste of the level of production and organization that went on with this event.
Why Go VIP
Going VIP for this event entitled you to a private area behind the stage and and a luxurious and fully furnished teepee. While I wouldn’t choose VIP it’s nice that an event of this size has it as an option.
What Makes The Festival Different?
One of the biggest contributors to making this event unique is it’s size and spectrum of activities. While most would expected a smaller event to have less to offer and be focused on music, this couldn’t be further from the truth for Munduzer. If anything the biggest selling point might be it’s most ambiguous. How would one quantify an event that is made so great by its attendees and could we be let down next year? I doubt next year’s Munduzer will be anything less than exponentially better than this year’s due to how hard the team at Desert Canvas works to preserve this event.
Insider Tips
Because of it’s size an accessibility no special precautions are needed when arriving. At most plenty of beer and early arrival are suggested, so you can begin enjoying as well as sharing the aforementioned beer.
Check out our full gallery of Munduzer HERE.
