Same Same But Different is the boutique festival that keeps SoCal's electronic and indie heads coming back to the water, and the 2026 edition runs September 25–27 at Lake Perris. It's the antidote to the mega-fest — smaller, weirder, and built around community, camping, and a lakeside setting an hour east of LA.
The bill blends live electronic, indie, jam, and downtempo acts with DJs, spread across intimate stages where you're never fighting a stadium crowd to catch a set. The festival's signature touches — the Nakey Island experience, art installations, workshops, and late-night sets — give it a personality most festivals of this size can't touch. It leans experiential: you're not just watching music, you're camping in it for three days.
This is squarely in the pocket for the 21-and-up, cannabis-friendly crowd that values vibe over scale. Same Same draws a NorCal-meets-SoCal mix — festival veterans, transformational-fest regulars, and people who'd rather post up lakeside with their crew than grind through a corporate mega-event. The crowd is friendly, the pace is unhurried, and the setting does a lot of the work.
Tickets and camping passes run through Tixr, with GA and various camping and vehicle options; weekend passes are the move since the experience is built around the full three-day arc. Lake Perris sits in Riverside County, so pack for warm days and cool desert-adjacent nights, and plan your camp setup with your group ahead of time.
If the big Inland Empire raves aren't your speed, Same Same But Different is the counterprogramming — a genuine community festival with a lakeside backdrop. Check the official site and Tixr for the full lineup, set times, and camping details before you commit.