Well, this should simplify your hundreds-of-miles-away summer festival scheduling, as two of NorCal’s biggies, the Dirtybird Campout and Northern Nights, are merging into one for a late July weekend mega-fest.
It was a common refrain in the summer of 2024 that a lot of musical festivals were canceled, given high costs, consumers dealing with inflation, and saturation of redundant acts that played at other festivals. (And maybe organizers who weren’t all that great at logistics?) One big one that hasn’t been held since 2022 was the famed Dirtybird Campout, which did settle for a free Another Planet Entertainment concert at the Embarcadero this past July.
But the Dirtybird Campout will return in the summer of 2025. Though Billboard reports that it will merge with the Northern Nights music festival, a separate festival held annually in the redwood forests of Mendocino County, which is a pretty similar EDM campout weekend famed for selling legal cannabis onsite.
The combined festivals will be called “Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights,” (could they not have come up with something snappier? DirtyNights? NorthernBird?). The merger of these two is perhaps not a huge surprise, as Northern Nights has often had a Dirtybird stage. And both are similar in being three-day NorCal weekend summer campouts for the molly crowd with an array of solid B-list EDM performers, and very expensive VIP and glamping options.
Dirtybird Campout x Northern Nights will be held on July 18-20, 2025, at Cook’s Valley Campground at the border of Humboldt and Mendocino counties. That site is admittedly fabulous, with the Eel River winding through and providing wacky inflatable pool raft fun in your Speedo or bikini.
“With Dirtybird in the mix,” Northern Nights co-founder Andrew Borgelt told Billboard, “expect a whole new level of immersive fun — campout vibes, themed stages and the iconic Dirtybird Campout color games. This isn’t a takeover; it’s a collaboration of two beloved festival cultures, creating something fresh, bold, and unforgettable.”
It is perhaps no coincidence that this announcement comes on the same day that tickets went on sale. General Admission is $336 per person, VIPs are $536 per person, and then there are special camping arrangements available at a price, too.
That’s kind of a lot of money to ask when there is absolutely no musical artist lineup announced yet. But who knows, maybe people are so anxious to ride on their floaties in the summer sun, at an admittedly wonderful campsite, that the musical lineup is frankly kind of secondary to the weekend's fun.
Related: Another Planet Entertainment to Throw Free Concert on Sunday In Embarcadero Plaza [SFist]
Image: Dirtybird Campout via Facebook
