Stuart Swezey

Stuart Swezey
Swezey in 2018
Born (1961-08-23) August 23, 1961
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Producer, Director, Writer
Years active1980s–present
Known forFounder of Desolation Center, Director of Desolation Center (2018)

Stuart Swezey (born 1961) is an American filmmaker, event organizer, and publisher best known for founding the Desolation Center series of underground music and performance art festivals in the 1980s. These desert-based events are widely credited with influencing the development of large-scale alternative music festivals such as Burning Man, Coachella, and Lollapalooza. Swezey later directed the 2018 documentary film Desolation Center, which chronicled the history and cultural significance of those early gatherings. He is also the founder of Amok Books, a Los Angeles-based publishing house known for its countercultural and transgressive literature.[1]

Biography

Stuart Swezey was in his early twenties when he founded Desolation Center which would become a music festival template for everything from Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Burning Man.

In the early 1980s, a 20-year-old Swezey, growing up in Los Angeles and immersed in the burgeoning local punk scene decided to bring his friends, and bands out to the California desert. Stuart also invited a few experimental artists for a series of loosely organized shows. These shows combined guerrilla music and arts which led to a number of festivals out in the California Desert, including one held out on a whale watching boat in the Pacific Ocean. The festivals eventually ended, many of the bands went on to global recognition and Swezey would co-found the popular publishing house Amok Books.[2]

Career

During a trip to Mexico in his early twenties while listening to music groups such as PiL, Wire, and Savage Republic on his Walkman, Swezey came up with the idea to have a festival in the middle of the California desert.[2] After his visit from Mexico Stuart contacted Bruce Licher founder of Independent Project Records and the front man of the band Savage Republic to share his idea of having a concert in the middle of the desert, Licher drove Swezey to a location near Lucerne Valley called Soggy Dried Lake.[3] The first iteration of this festival was hosted in the Mojave desert presented by Desolation Center entitled Mojave Exodus.[2] The first gathering in the Mojave Desert featured performances by Savage Republic and The Minutemen on April 24, 1984. Stuart printed two hundred and fifty that were sold at $12.50 each and distributed at local record stores around Los Angeles.[4] Those who attended this first gathering were picked up in downtown Los Angeles and were transported to the secret location in the Mojave desert via school buses.[5] The Second show in the desert featured Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Labs, and others which would be titled "Mojave Auszug" a German Translation inspired by Stuarts time spent in West Germany.[4] The third iteration of Desolation Center would travel to the sea through the use of a whaling boat named the MV Comorant. This event was titled the "Joy At Sea" and featured the Meat Puppets, Points of Friction, Minutemen, and Lawndale.[6] Comorant set sail from San Pedro to Long Beach Harbors port on June 25, 1984.[7] "Gilla Monster Jamboree" was the final show by Desolation Center. This show returned to the desert and featured bands such as the Meat Puppets, Redd Kross, Psi Com (fronted by the lead singer of Jane's Addiction Perry Ferrell), and Sonic Youth which was their first ever west coast show.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Stuart Swezey". Team Human. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  2. ^ a b c "Interview: Desolation Center doc director Stuart Swezey, outdoor fest pioneer". New Noise Magazine. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  3. ^ "Stuart Swezey on the Music and Madness of the Desolation Center". daily.redbullmusicacademy.com. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  4. ^ a b Bien-Kahn, Joseph (2015-09-13). "How a 20-Year-Old Punk Kid and the Minutemen Pioneered Mainstream Music Festival Culture". VICE. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  5. ^ Pearis, Bill. "Review: 'Desolation Center' documentary is a punk rock desert trip worth taking". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved 2025-06-12.
  6. ^ "Before Lollapalooza, Coachella and Burning Man, This Desert Music Festival Started It All". PBS SoCal. 2017-07-07. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
  7. ^ "Hundreds of Punks Hit the Desert. The Modern Music Festival Was Born. (Published 2019)". 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
  8. ^ Wray, Daniel Dylan (2020-07-08). "Sonic Youth, Desolation Center 1985: 500 tabs of acid, one life-changing gig". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
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