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Home > Desert Oracle Radio > This weekend’s Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest offers a free, all-access alternative “punk ethos” to literary elitism 
Podcast: Desert Oracle Radio
Episode:

This weekend’s Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest offers a free, all-access alternative “punk ethos” to literary elitism 
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2026-03-19 14:43:13
Description:

Starting this Friday, March 20, The Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest is a free weekend of literary panels, workshops, and readings; special art installation events; three nights of both local bands and internationally renowned musicians; and a closing party focused on filmmaking and screenwriting. The festival takes place at multiple venues across the Morongo Basin. Reporter Gabriel Hart spoke to festival organizers Rob Roberge and Gina Frangello about the origins of the festival and what sets it apart from other literary gatherings.

Owners of a Wonder Valley cabin since 2000, husband and wife Rob Roberge and Gina Frangello started the Bombay Beach Lit Fest in 2019. While the following year would be skipped due to pandemic, the couple managed to keep it going until 2023 before they felt the need to represent their own backyard. 

“We loved it but now we live in this area. We really are kind of a little obsessed with Bombay Beach, we have quite a fondness for it, but we wanted to have the festival in our own backyard. Like in our own community, celebrating people at the venues, the shop owners, and the artists out here,” said Frangello.

Gina and Rob feel their new Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest offers an alternative to your typical costly and bureaucratic literary festival, stating their slogan has always been: “No tickets, no wristbands, no bullshit!”

“It’s an all free DIY spirited festival. It has a very punk ethos, all the volunteers are unpaid, all the the people who come out and participate are unpaid. It’s all access, anybody can come, you don’t have to reserve. So we thought of it as a very approachable festival, kind of an antidote to some of the really big high ticket, more elite festivals in this particular area and that was kind of why we wanted to do it… just to have a big gathering of writers and musicians and people who dig writers musicians all in one place for community but not for profit,” said Frangello.

Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest organizers Gina Frangello and Rob Roberge

While the fest will be spanning the whole Morongo Basin along the 62, the fest was a recipient of a smaller support grant from the Twentynine Palms Tourism Business Improvement District, with Corner 62 being one of the many venues along with The Palms in Wonder Valley, Z-Club in Joshua Tree, and Mojave Gold in Yucca Valley. The fest will feature workshops and panel discussions on noir fiction, writing sex and desire, banned books, travel and music writing, and filmmaking.

Featured writers include Tod Goldberg, Jim Ruland, Susan Rukeyser, Rachel Resnick, Ivy Pochoda, Ben Schafer, Ruth Nolan, Annie Connole, and much more.

Musical acts include The Siblys, Psychedelic Furs guitarist and Very Very shop owner Rich Good, San Pedro punk veteran Mike Watt and the debut of Gina and Rob’s group The Hitchcock Brunettes. 

The Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest starts Friday at 6:00 p.m. at The Palms in Wonder Valley, Saturday at Z-Club in Joshua Tree at 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. before ending at Mojave Gold in Yucca Valley from 7:00 p.m. on, then Sunday at Corner 62 in Twentynine Palms at 9:00 a.m. For full schedule and details, please visit https://circeconsulting.net/hdlf/

Visit the Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Weekend on Instagram.

The post This weekend’s Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest offers a free, all-access alternative “punk ethos” to literary elitism  appeared first on Z107.7 FM Joshua Tree.
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