My Weekend at CRSSD Festival Fall 2026
CRSSD is one of those festivals that makes San Diego feel almost unreal. For two days, Waterfront Park transforms into a massive electronic music playground, with palm trees, downtown buildings, San Diego Bay, planes flying overhead and thousands of people packed between three stages.
I spent the weekend dancing, taking photos, meeting a ton of cool people and somehow leaving with several new friends. That ended up being one of my favorite parts of the festival. CRSSD has a really social energy to it. It felt easy to start talking to someone in the crowd, compliment an outfit or suddenly realize you had spent half a set hanging out with people you had just met.
The location is a huge part of why the festival works so well. Waterfront Park sits directly in front of the County Administration Center, and during the first several hours of the day, the splash fountains out front were still running. People were barefoot in the water, dancing, splashing each other and cooling off between sets while music carried across the park. Watching festivalgoers turn a public fountain into a dance floor felt like such a uniquely San Diego moment.
I started Saturday with Italian group Mind Enterprises, who were a perfect introduction to the weekend. The festival was still filling in, but people were already dancing and the set immediately put me into festival mode. Afterward, I spent some time wandering between Ocean View, City Steps and The Palms, one of my favorite things about CRSSD since the stages are close enough that moving around never feels like a mission.
Later, Notion played one of the prettiest sets of the weekend as the sun started dropping over San Diego. The temperature cooled down, the sky turned orange and pink, and thousands of people were dancing in front of the waterfront. It was one of those sets where the environment became just as memorable as the music.
Then came horsegiirL, easily my favorite set of the entire weekend. By the time she hit Ocean View, the crowd was enormous. She came out in her signature fashion, bringing the bold, daring and completely committed visual identity that has made her so recognizable. Everything from the horse mask and styling to the way she moved onstage felt like part of the same world.
More importantly, she completely owned the crowd. Her set was fast, euphoric and ridiculously fun to dance to, and everywhere I looked people were moving. There are plenty of artists with recognizable aesthetics, but horsegiirL has built something that feels entirely her own. She does not look like everyone else, she does not perform like everyone else, and that is exactly what makes her so exciting to watch.
Mochakk closed out my Saturday with one of the most elaborate stage setups I saw all weekend, including giant street signs and scenic pieces surrounding the booth. By then, Ocean View had completely transformed from the sunny open space of the afternoon into a massive nighttime dance floor.
Sunday started later for us after rain moved through San Diego earlier in the day. Thankfully, things cleared up, and we made it back in time for Groove Armada’s DJ set before moving between Helena Hauff and Boys Noize.
The set I was most curious about, though, was the closing back to back from Chris Lake and Disclosure, and it ended up being my favorite performance of Sunday.
What made the set so good was how collaborative it actually felt. Chris Lake and both members of Disclosure were onstage together behind one large setup, constantly rotating through the center position and passing control back and forth. It never felt like one artist stopped so another could begin. All three of them were actively building the set together.
They also filled the stage behind them with fans who had apparently been selected throughout the festival, turning the whole performance into one giant party. There was a crowd in front of them, another behind them and all three artists right in the middle.
At one point, they told the audience they had made a new, unnamed song together in their hotel the night before and then played it for the crowd. Hearing something they had created less than 24 hours earlier made the set feel specific to that weekend rather than just another festival stop.
By the end, Ocean View was completely packed. It genuinely felt like the entire festival had decided to finish the weekend in the same place.
I went into CRSSD excited about the lineup, and the artists absolutely delivered, but what I will probably remember most is everything around the sets. Watching the sunset during Notion, people dancing through the fountains, the outfits, the new friends and the feeling of downtown San Diego being completely wrapped into the festival.
That is what CRSSD does especially well. It never feels disconnected from the city hosting it. The bay, the skyline, the planes, the park and the people all become part of the experience.
After two days at Waterfront Park, horsegiirL was my favorite set of the weekend and Chris Lake with Disclosure gave me my favorite moment of Sunday, but the entire weekend felt like a reminder of just how good San Diego can be when the music, location and crowd all come together.