By-Application Music Festival Seeks to Smite Out the Instagram Set

In recent years, going to the desert for a music festival has become a places to see and be seen.

And like all places to see and be seen, it’s become a bit vapid.

But FORM is a new desert music festival that not only caters to a smaller group of people — it also requires an application process.

The real draw is the festival’s location: Arcosanti, a desert compound/experimental town north of Phoenix conceived by Paolo Soleri, an Italian architect famous for blending structures and settlements into their surrounding landscape (see: his namesake amphitheater in Santa Fe).

And the lineup is solid: Father John Misty, Future Islands, Solange, a James Blake acoustic et (among others). But it’s the combination of outdoor activities and a speaker series that includes professional stargazers explaining the night sky that really separate FORM from the Instagram-addicted hot mess you’ll find at Coachella.

The trick to skipping the line is the Patron Package, a VIP option that includes full glamping accommodations (i.e., a yurt), meals, full bar and a concierge desk.

Consider this spring cleaning for your mind, body and soul.